Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2019 iii Paper 219 3 a Solution 2026-10-03
Stack the observations as and setLet and denote matrices obtained by evaluating the two Gaussian process covariance kernels. Independence of the quasar light curve, gravitational microlensing, and Gaussian noise processes giveswhere . Thus is a multivariate normal distribution and its Gaussian-process marginal likelihood isThe off-diagonal blocks are essential: both images contain the same delayed Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2019 iii Paper 219 3 c Solution 2026-10-03
Use broad proper uniform priors for , , and over physically plausible ranges, and broad log-uniform priors for the positive scales and . ThenA Random-walk Metropolis algorithm can update with a multivariate Gaussian proposal distribution. Initialize several dispersed chains near plausible cross-correlation delays and near the marginal-likelihood optimum; reject proposals outside the prior bounds; discard warm-up while adapting only the proposal scale and covariance; then freeze the kernel and retain a long run. Evaluate trace plots, autocorrelations, acceptance rates, between-chain agreement, and the effective sample size of a Markov chain. Posterior predictive quasar light curves provide a model check.