Bayesian evidence comparison for distance scale estimates

Abstract: Constraints on cosmological parameters are often distilled from sky surveys by fitting templates to summary statistics of the data that are motivated by a fiducial cosmological model. However, recent work has shown how to estimate the distance scale using templates that are more generic: the basis functions used are not explicitly tied to any one cosmological model. We describe a Bayesian framework for (i) determining how many basis functions to use and (ii) comparing one basis set with another. Our formulation provides intuition into how (a) one's degree of belief in different basis sets, (b) the fact that the choice of priors depends on basis set, and (c) the data set itself, together determine the derived constraints. We illustrate our framework using measurements in simulated datasets before applying it to real data.