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Paper No. 11-32

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D Chakrabarty

Galactic Phase Spaces

Date: December 2011

Abstract: Galaxies are argued to manifest complexity, thereby contradicting models of smooth parametric galactic phase space densities. An estimation of chaos in models of our galaxy is forwarded to suggest strength and possible causes of non-linearities in phase space. A Bayesian nonparametric methodology that is designed to acknowledge uncertainties in measured data, when applied to an observed external galaxy, indicates a non-linear galactic phase space density that could result from a bistable system potential. The effect of such a phase space structure on the inverse modelling of phase space data is discussed.

Keywords: Non-linear dynamics; Hypothesis testing; Bayesian non-parametrics.