An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics

A mathematical framework described by the prior distribution of a random parameter and by the likelihood of the observations. In this framework, all information on the random parameter based on the observations is included in the posterior distribution
which can be obtained using → Bayes’ theorem (see, e.g., Andrieu et al., 2001, “An Introduction to Monte Carlo Methods for Bayesian Data Analysis,” in Nonlinear Dynamics and Statistics, ed. A. I. Mees, Boston: Birkhäuser).

See also: Bayesian; → model.