Probabilistic Cross-Identification

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  Five years ago SkyQuery almost got it right.   It has been brewing for some time.
  But it was definitely worth it.
  This is IT!

          http://www.arxiv.org/abs/0707.1611

  P.S. Ask your doctor or pharmacist about

       any serious side effects.

:-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-)

arXiv:0707.1611

    Title: Probabilistic Cross-Identification of Astronomical Sources     Authors: Tamas Budavari, Alexander S. Szalay     Comments: 9 pages, 1 figure, AASTeX preprint, submitted to ApJ     Subjects: Astrophysics (astro-ph)

We present the general probabilistic formalism for cross-identifying astronomical point sources in multiple observations. Our Bayesian approach, symmetric in all observations, is the foundation of a unified framework for object matching, where not only spatial information, but also physical properties, such as colors, redshift and luminosity, can be considered in a natural way. We provide a practical recipe to implement an efficient recursive algorithm to evaluate the Bayes factor over a set of catalogs with known circular errors in positions. This new methodology is crucial for studies leveraging the synergy of today's multi-wavelength observations and to enter the time-domain science of the upcoming survey telescopes.

This is a shameless advertisement of our recent paper. I am sending this email hoping that many of you will find it relevant and interesting. Enjoy! Comments, as always, are very welcome.

Cheers, T.

--
Tamas Budavari

Dept. of Physics and Astronomy       
The Johns Hopkins University         
3400 N. Charles Street 
Baltimore, MD 21218                    
Phone: +1 (410) 516-0643
Fax: +1 (410) 516-5096
http://www.sdss.jhu.edu/~budavari