Likelihoods¶

Likelihood function implementations.

Overview¶

Users and developers can implement the final phase of likelihood function evaluation as an extension module.

These functions must operate on a channel-phase resolved set of signals (one per hot region). Each component will have an associated phase shift to account for. An exposure time must be invoked to scale the signal to yield the expected count numbers.

A phase-resolved signal means that the signal is evaluated at a sequence of phase points, and thus the signal is to be integrated over a sequence of phase intervals if the data (event) space in each channel is discrete. If one desires an unbinned likelihood function, this can be approximated with a high number of phase bins using existing extensions, or a new extension module can be straighforwardly developed to loop over events at greater computational expense.

Lastly, a background model is required. If a physical background model is condition upon, an extension can operate with the expected background count (rate or number) signal. In lieu of such a model, one can invoke the default background marginalisation protocol; channel-by-channel background count rate variables will be numerically and rapidly marginalised over. See the discussion in Riley et al. 2019 (ApJL, 887, L21) and the X-PSI technical notes to evaluate whether this is appropriate for coupling with a given model for target source signal.

Extensions¶

xpsi.likelihoods.precomputation(__Pyx_memviewslice data)

Compute negative of sum of log-factorials of data count numbers.

Use this function to perform precomputation before repeatedly calling eval_marginal_likelihood().

Parameters: data (int[:,::1]) – Phase-channel resolved count numbers (integers). Phase increases with column number. A 1D numpy.ndarray information, one element per channel. Each element is the negative of the sum (over phase intervals) of log-factorials of data count numbers.
xpsi.likelihoods.eval_marginal_likelihood(double exposure_time, __Pyx_memviewslice phases, __Pyx_memviewslice counts, components, component_phases, phase_shifts, __Pyx_memviewslice neg_sum_ln_data_factorial, __Pyx_memviewslice support, size_t workspace_intervals, double epsabs, double epsrel, double epsilon, double sigmas, double llzero, allow_negative=False)

Evaluate the Poisson likelihood.

The count rate is integrated over phase intervals.

A Newton iteration procedure is implemented channel-by-channel to approximate the conditional-ML background count-rate variable given a fiducial estimate. Marginalisation over each background variable (in each channel) is then executed numerically between bounds centred on the ML background estimate. The bounds are based on a Gaussian expansion of the conditional likelihood function, and are sigmas standard deviations above and below the ML estimate. The marginalisation is with respect to a flat bounded or unbounded prior density function of each background variable.

Parameters: exposure_time (double) – Exposure time in seconds by which to scale the expected count rate in each phase interval. phases (double[::1]) – A numpy.ndarray of phase interval edges in cycles. components (tuple) – Component signals, each a C-contiguous numpy.ndarray of signal count rates where phase increases with column number. component_phases (tuple) – For each component, a C-contiguous numpy.ndarray of phases in cycles at which the model signal is evaluated on the interval [0,1]. phase_shifts (array-like) – Phase shifts in cycles, such as on the interval [-0.5,0.5], for the component signals. neg_sum_ln_data_factorial (double[::1]) – The precomputed output of precomputation() given the data count numbers. support (double[:,::1]) – The prior support of the background count-rate variables. The first column contains lower-bounds as a function of channel number. Lower- bounds must be greater than or equal to zero. The second column contains the upper-bounds as a function of channel number. Upper-bounds for a proper prior must be greater than zero and greater than the corresponding lower-bound but finite. If the upper-bound is less than zero the prior is semi-unbounded and thus improper. Must be a C-contiguous numpy.ndarray. workspace_intervals (size_t) – The size of the workspace to allocate for marginalisation via numerical quadrature using the GSL cquad integration routine. epsabs (double) – The absolute tolerance for marginalisation via numerical quadrature using the GSL cquad integration routine. epsrel (double) – The relative tolerance for marginalisation via numerical quadrature using the GSL cquad integration routine. epsilon (double) – The fraction of the standard deviation of the approximating Gaussian function to tolerate when a new step of the quadratic maximisation scheme is proposed. This fraction should be some adequately small number. The standard deviation is recalculated with each iteration as the position (in each background variable) evolves. sigmas (double) – The number of approximating Gaussian standard deviations to expand the integration domain about the point estimated to maximise the conditional likelihood function in each channel. This number should probably be at least five but no more than ten. llzero (double) – The log-likelihood that a MultiNest process treats as zero and thus ignores points with smaller log-likelihood. This number will be very negative. This is useful because if the likelihood is predicted, in advance of full executation of this function, to be incredibly small, computation can be avoided, returning a number slightly above this zero-threshold. allow_negative (obj) – A boolean or an array of booleans, one per component, declaring whether to allow negative phase interpolant integrals. If the interpolant is not a Steffen spline, then the interpolant of a non-negative function can be negative due to oscillations. For the default Akima Periodic spline from GSL, such oscillations should manifest as small relative to those present in cubic splines, for instance, because it is designed to handle a rapidly changing second-order derivative. A tuple (double, 2D ndarray, 1D ndarray). The first element is the logarithm of the marginal likelihood. The second element is the expected count numbers in joint phase-channel intervals from the star (the target source). The last element is the vector of background count numbers that are estimated to maximise the conditional likelihood function, one per channel.
xpsi.likelihoods.poisson_likelihood_given_background(double exposure_time, __Pyx_memviewslice phases, __Pyx_memviewslice counts, components, component_phases, phase_shifts, __Pyx_memviewslice background, allow_negative=False)

Evaluate the Poisson likelihood.

The count rate is integrated over phase intervals.

Parameters: exposure_time (double) – Exposure time in seconds by which to scale the expected count rate in each phase interval. phases (double[::1]) – A numpy.ndarray of phase interval edges in cycles. components (tuple) – Component signals, each a C-contiguous numpy.ndarray of signal count rates where phase increases with column number. component_phases (tuple) – For each component, a C-contiguous numpy.ndarray of phases in cycles at which the model signal is evaluated on the interval [0,1]. phase_shifts (array-like) – Phase shifts in cycles, such as on the interval [-0.5,0.5], for the component signals. background (double[:,::1]) – A C-contiguous numpy.ndarray of background expected counts, whose shape matches the number of channels in each element of components and the number of phase intervals constructed from phases. allow_negative (obj) – A boolean or an array of booleans, one per component, declaring whether to allow negative phase interpolant integrals. If the interpolant is not a Steffen spline, then the interpolant of a non-negative function can be negative due to oscillations. For the default Akima Periodic spline from GSL, such oscillations should manifest as small relative to those present in cubic splines, for instance, because it is designed to handle a rapidly changing second-order derivative. A tuple (double, 2D ndarray). The first element is the logarithm of the marginal likelihood. The second element is the expected count numbers in joint phase-channel intervals from the star (the target source).

Example¶

The following is an example of a custom extension module to evaluate a simple likelihood function based on Poisson sampling distribution of count data.

#cython: cdivision=True
#cython: boundscheck=False
#cython: nonecheck=False
#cython: wraparound=False
#cython: embedsignature=True

from __future__ import division

import numpy as np
from libc.math cimport pow, log, floor
from libc.stdlib cimport malloc, free

from GSL cimport (gsl_interp,
gsl_interp_alloc,
gsl_interp_init,
gsl_interp_free,
gsl_interp_eval,
gsl_interp_eval_integ,
gsl_interp_steffen,
gsl_interp_accel,
gsl_interp_accel_alloc,
gsl_interp_accel_free,
gsl_interp_accel_reset)

ctypedef gsl_interp_accel accel

def poisson_likelihood_given_background(double exposure_time,
double[::1] phases,
double[:,::1] counts,
components,
component_phases,
phase_shifts,
double[:,::1] background):
""" Evaluate the Poisson likelihood.

The count rate is integrated over phase intervals.

:param double exposure_time:
Exposure time in seconds by which to scale the expected count rate
in each phase interval.

:param phases:
A C-contiguous :class:numpy.ndarray of phase interval edges in cycles.

:param tuple components:
Component signals, each a C-contiguous :class:numpy.ndarray of
signal count rates where phase increases with column number.

:param tuple component_phases:
For each component, a C-contiguous :class:numpy.ndarray of phases
in cycles at which the model :obj:signal is evaluated on
the interval [0,1].

:param array-like phase_shifts:
Phase shifts in cycles, such as on the interval [-0.5,0.5], for
the component signals.

:param background:
A C-contiguous :class:numpy.ndarray of background expected
*counts*, whose shape matches the number of channels in each element
of :obj:components and the number of phase intervals constructed
from :obj:phases.

"""

cdef:
size_t i, j, p, num_components = len(components)
double a, b

double[:,::1] STAR = np.zeros((components[0].shape[0], phases.shape[0]-1),
dtype = np.double)

cdef double *phases_ptr = NULL
cdef double *signal_ptr = NULL

cdef double[:,::1] signal
cdef double[::1] signal_phase_set
cdef double phase_shift

cdef gsl_interp **interp = <gsl_interp**> malloc(num_components * sizeof(gsl_interp*))
cdef accel **acc =  <accel**> malloc(num_components * sizeof(accel*))

for p in range(num_components):
signal_phase_set = component_phases[p]
interp[p] = gsl_interp_alloc(gsl_interp_steffen, signal_phase_set.shape[0])
acc[p] = gsl_interp_accel_alloc()
gsl_interp_accel_reset(acc[p])

cdef gsl_interp *inter_ptr = NULL
cdef accel *acc_ptr = NULL

for i in range(STAR.shape[0]):
for p in range(num_components):
signal = components[p]
signal_phase_set = component_phases[p]
phase_shift = phase_shifts[p]

interp_ptr = interp[p]
acc_ptr = acc[p]
phases_ptr = &(signal_phase_set[0])
signal_ptr = &(signal[i,0])

gsl_interp_init(interp_ptr, phases_ptr, signal_ptr,
signal_phase_set.shape[0])

for j in range(phases.shape[0] - 1):
a = phases[j] + phase_shift
b = phases[j+1] + phase_shift

a -= floor(a)
b -= floor(b)

if a < b:
STAR[i,j] += gsl_interp_eval_integ(interp_ptr,
phases_ptr,
signal_ptr,
a, b,
acc_ptr)
else:
STAR[i,j] += gsl_interp_eval_integ(interp_ptr,
phases_ptr,
signal_ptr,
a, 1.0,
acc_ptr)

STAR[i,j] += gsl_interp_eval_integ(interp_ptr,
phases_ptr,
signal_ptr,
0.0, b,
acc_ptr)

for p in range(num_components):
gsl_interp_accel_free(acc[p])
gsl_interp_free(interp[p])

free(acc)
free(interp)

cdef:
double LOGLIKE = 0.0, EXPEC = 0.0
double n = <double>(phases.shape[0] - 1)

for i in range(STAR.shape[0]):
for j in range(STAR.shape[1]):
EXPEC = (STAR[i,j] + background[i,j]/n) * exposure_time
LOGLIKE -= EXPEC
LOGLIKE += counts[i,j] * log(EXPEC)

STAR[i,j] += background[i,j]/n
STAR[i,j] *= exposure_time

return (LOGLIKE, np.asarray(STAR, order='C', dtype=np.double))