Entropic Approach to Multiscale Clustering Analysis

Recently, a novel method has been introduced to estimate the statistical significance of clustering in the direction distribution of objects. The method involves a multiscale procedure, based on the Kullback–Leibler divergence and the Gumbel statistics of extreme values, providing high discriminatio...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Antonio Insolia, Manlio De Domenico
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2012-05-01
Series:Entropy
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/14/5/865
Description
Summary:Recently, a novel method has been introduced to estimate the statistical significance of clustering in the direction distribution of objects. The method involves a multiscale procedure, based on the Kullback–Leibler divergence and the Gumbel statistics of extreme values, providing high discrimination power, even in presence of strong background isotropic contamination. It is shown that the method is: (i) semi-analytical, drastically reducing computation time; (ii) very sensitive to small, medium and large scale clustering; (iii) not biased against the null hypothesis. Applications to the physics of ultra-high energy cosmic rays, as a cosmological probe, are presented and discussed.
ISSN:1099-4300