ASTR 7730 - Statistical and Computational Methods in Physics & Astronomy

A survey of mathematical, statistical and computational methods of analyzing and modeling phenomena in astrophysics, biophysics, and physics in general. The goal is to connect observational data with underlying physical processes through numerical simulations, analytic approximations, and statistical analyses. Subjects in statistics include parameter estimation, Fisher information and correlators; numerical topics include large matrix processing, data visualization and Monte Carlo methods and dynamical modeling; analytical methods include series and asymptotic approximations to functions and symbolic programming on computers. Case studies, tuned to student research interests in physics and astronomy, provide examples.