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Confidence limits for small numbers of events in astrophysical data
Abstract
The calculation of limits for small numbers of astronomical counts is based on standard equations derived from Poisson and binomial statistics; although the equations are straightforward, their direct use is cumbersome and involves both table-interpolations and several mathematical operations. Convenient tables and approximate formulae are here presented for confidence limits which are based on such Poisson and binomial statistics. The limits in the tables are given for all confidence levels commonly used in astrophysics.
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Cited by
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SUPERFLARES ON SOLAR-TYPE STARS OBSERVED WITH KEPLER . I. STATISTICAL PROPERTIES OF SUPERFLARES
Shibayama, T., Maehara, H., Notsu, S., Notsu, Y., Nagao, T., Honda, S., Ishii, T. T., Nogami, D., & Shibata, K. (2013) · The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series · doi:10.1088/0067-0049/209/1/5 · Cited by 500
Tomczak, A. R., Quadri, R. F., Tran, K.-V. H., Labbé, I., Straatman, C. M. S., Papovich, C., Glazebrook, K., Allen, R., Brammer, G. B., Kacprzak, G. G., et al. (2014) · The Astrophysical Journal · doi:10.1088/0004-637x/783/2/85 · Cited by 466
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Gaia Collaboration, Smart, R. L., Sarro, L. M., Rybizki, J., Reylé, C., Robin, A. C., Hambly, N. C., Abbas, U., Barstow, M. A., de Bruijne, J. H. J., et al. (2021) · Astronomy & Astrophysics · doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202039498 · Cited by 341
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Metadata
- Authors
- Gehrels, N.
- Venue
- The Astrophysical Journal
- Publisher
- American Astronomical Society
- Published
- 1986-04
- Volume
- 303
- Pages
- 336
- ISSN
- 0004-637X (ISSN-L)
- 1538-4357
- OpenAlex
- W2054131667
- Cited by
- 2,412
- References
- 0
- FWCI
- 0.94
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
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- CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Confidence limits for small numbers of events in astrophysical data. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1086/164079
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- Gehrels, N. (1986). Confidence limits for small numbers of events in astrophysical data. The Astrophysical Journal. https://doi.org/10.1086/164079
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