Clustering statistics in cosmology

Author(s): Martinez, VJ; Saar, E

Book Editor(s): Starck, JL; Murtagh, FD

Conference: Conference on Astronomical Data Analysis II Location: WAIKOLOA, HI Date: AUG 27-28, 2002

Sponsor(s): SPIE; Int Commiss Opt; Amer Astron Soc; European SO Observ; Int Astron Union

Source: ASTRONOMICAL DATA ANALYSIS II  Book Series: PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY OF PHOTO-OPTICAL INSTRUMENTATION ENGINEERS (SPIE)   Volume: 4847   Pages: 86-100   DOI: 10.1117/12.461972   Published: 2002

The main tools in cosmology for comparing theoretical models with the observations of the galaxy distribution are statistical. We will review the applications of spatial statistics to the description of the large-scale structure of the universe. Special topics discussed in this talk will be: description of the galaxy samples, selection effects and biases, correlation functions, Fourier analysis, nearest neighbor statistics, Minkowski functionals and structure statistics. Special attention will be devoted to scaling laws and the use of the lacunarity measures in the description of the cosmic texture.