Cosmic statistics of statistics: N-point correlations.
The fully general calculation of the cosmic error on N-point correlation functions and related quantities is presented. More precisely, the variance caused by the finite volume, discreteness, and edge effects is determined for any estimator which is based on a general function of N-tuples, such as multi-point correlation functions and multi-spectra. The results are printed explicitly for the two-point correlation function (or power-spectrum), and for the three-point correlation (or bispectrum). These are the most popular statistics in the study of large-scale structure, yet the general calculation of their variance has not been performed until now.
Szapudi
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Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii, 2680 Woodlawn Drive, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA. szapudi@ifa.hawaii.edu