This book showcases the innovative research of Professor Skovgaard, by providing in one place a selection of his most important and influential papers. Introductions by colleagues set in context the highlights, key achievements, and impact, of each work. This book provides a survey of the field of asymptotic theory and inference as it was being pushed forward during an exceptionally fruitful time. It provides students and researchers with an overview of many aspects of the field.

This book presents recently developed statistical methods and theory required for the application of the tools of functional data analysis to problems arising in geosciences, finance, economics and biology. It is concerned with inference based on second order statistics, especially those related to the functional principal component analysis. While it covers inference for independent and identically distributed functional data, its distinguishing feature is an in depth coverage of dependent functional data structures, including functional time series and spatially indexed functions. Specific inferential problems studied include two sample inference, change point analysis, tests for dependence in data and model residuals and functional prediction. All procedures are described algorithmically, illustrated on simulated and real data sets, and supported by a complete asymptotic theory. The book can be read at two levels. Readers interested primarily in methodology will find detailed descriptions of the methods and examples of their application. Researchers interested also in mathematical foundations will find carefully developed theory. The organization of the chapters makes it easy for the reader to choose an appropriate focus. The book introduces the requisite, and frequently used, Hilbert space formalism in a systematic manner. This will be useful to graduate or advanced undergraduate students seeking a self-contained introduction to the subject. Advanced researchers will find novel asymptotic arguments.

Probability and stochastic processes; Limit theorems for some statistics; Asymptotic theory of estimation; Linear parametric inference; Martingale approach to inference; Inference in nonlinear regression; Von mises functionals; Empirical characteristic function and its applications.

The book presents the fundamental concepts from asymptotic statistical inference theory, elaborating on some basic large sample optimality properties of estimators and some test procedures. The most desirable property of consistency of an estimator and its large sample distribution, with suitable normalization, are discussed, the focus being on the consistent and asymptotically normal (CAN) estimators. It is shown that for the probability models belonging to an exponential family and a Cramer family, the maximum likelihood estimators of the indexing parameters are CAN. The book describes some large sample test procedures, in particular, the most frequently used likelihood ratio test procedure. Various applications of the likelihood ratio test procedure are addressed, when the underlying probability model is a multinomial distribution. These include tests for the goodness of fit and tests for contingency tables. The book also discusses a score test and Wald’s test, their relationship with the likelihood ratio test and Karl Pearson’s chi-square test. An important finding is that, while testing any hypothesis about the parameters of a multinomial distribution, a score test statistic and Karl Pearson’s chi-square test statistic are identical. Numerous illustrative examples of differing difficulty level are incorporated to clarify the concepts. For better assimilation of the notions, various exercises are included in each chapter. Solutions to almost all the exercises are given in the last chapter, to motivate students towards solving these exercises and to enable digestion of the underlying concepts. The concepts from asymptotic inference are crucial in modern statistics, but are difficult to grasp in view of their abstract nature. To overcome this difficulty, keeping up with the recent trend of using R software for statistical computations, the book uses it extensively, for illustrating the concepts, verifying the properties of estimators and carrying out various test procedures. The last section of the chapters presents R codes to reveal and visually demonstrate the hidden aspects of different concepts and procedures. Augmenting the theory with R software is a novel and a unique feature of the book. The book is designed primarily to serve as a text book for a one semester introductory course in asymptotic statistical inference, in a post-graduate program, such as Statistics, Bio-statistics or Econometrics. It will also provide sufficient background information for studying inference in stochastic processes. The book will cater to the need of a concise but clear and student-friendly book introducing, conceptually and computationally, basics of asymptotic inference.

This is the second edition of a coherent introduction to the subject of asymptotic statistics as it has developed over the past 50 years. It differs from the first edition in that it is now more 'reader friendly' and also includes a new chapter on Gaussian and Poisson experiments, reflecting their growing role in the field. Most of the subsequent chapters have been entirely rewritten and the nonparametrics of Chapter 7 have been amplified. The volume is not intended to replace monographs on specialized subjects, but will help to place them in a coherent perspective. It thus represents a link between traditional material - such as maximum likelihood, and Wald's Theory of Statistical Decision Functions -- together with comparison and distances for experiments. Much of the material has been taught in a second year graduate course at Berkeley for 30 years.

Quantum statistical inference, a research field with deep roots in the foundations of both quantum physics and mathematical statistics, has made remarkable progress since 1990. In particular, its asymptotic theory has been developed during this period. However, there has hitherto been no book covering this remarkable progress after 1990; the famous textbooks by Holevo and Helstrom deal only with research results in the earlier stage (1960s-1970s).This book presents the important and recent results of quantum statistical inference. It focuses on the asymptotic theory, which is one of the central issues of mathematical statistics and had not been investigated in quantum statistical inference until the early 1980s. It contains outstanding papers after Holevo's textbook, some of which are of great importance but are not available now.The reader is expected to have only elementary mathematical knowledge, and therefore much of the content will be accessible to graduate students as well as research workers in related fields. Introductions to quantum statistical inference have been specially written for the book. Asymptotic Theory of Quantum Statistical Inference: Selected Papers will give the reader a new insight into physics and statistical inference.

This book is an introduction to the field of asymptotic statistics. The treatment is both practical and mathematically rigorous. In addition to most of the standard topics of an asymptotics course, including likelihood inference, M-estimation, the theory of asymptotic efficiency, U-statistics, and rank procedures, the book also presents recent research topics such as semiparametric models, the bootstrap, and empirical processes and their applications. The topics are organized from the central idea of approximation by limit experiments, which gives the book one of its unifying themes. This entails mainly the local approximation of the classical i.i.d. set up with smooth parameters by location experiments involving a single, normally distributed observation. Thus, even the standard subjects of asymptotic statistics are presented in a novel way. Suitable as a graduate or Master s level statistics text, this book will also give researchers an overview of the latest research in asymptotic statistics.