Research Interests

  • Bayesian inference, information theory, and related topics
  • Computational methods (particularly Nested Sampling)
  • Astrostatistics
  • Sports Statistics

Publications

This list includes traditional journal publications, as well as other work.

Empirical Models of the Hβ Broad Emission Line Gas Density Field
Villafaña, Lizvette; Treu, Tommaso; Colleyn, Lourenzo; Brewer, Brendon J.; Barth, Aaron J.; Malkan, Matthew A.; U, Vivian; Bennert, Vardha N., 2024, The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 966, Issue 1, id.106, 15 pp. Paper.

Rotation of the Globular Cluster Population of the Dark Matter Deficient Galaxy NGC 1052-DF4: Implication for the Total Mass
Yuan (Cher) Li, Brendon J. Brewer, Geraint F. Lewis, 2024, accepted for publication in PASA. Preprint.

Detection of the Cosmological Time Dilation of High Redshift Quasars
Geraint F. Lewis, Brendon J. Brewer, 2023, Nature Astronomy, 7, 1265-1269 Preprint.

Testing the Cosmological Principle with CatWISE Quasars: A Bayesian Analysis of the Number-Count Dipole
Lawrence Dam, Geraint F Lewis, Brendon J Brewer, 2023, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 525, Issue 1, pp.231-245. Preprint.

What Does the Geometry of the Hβ BLR Depend On?
Lizvette Villafaña, Peter R. Williams, Tommaso Treu, Brendon J. Brewer, and many coauthors, 2023, The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 948, Issue 2, id.95, 13 pp. Preprint.

Chemo-dynamical substructure in the M31 inner halo globular clusters: Further evidence for a recent accretion event
Geraint F. Lewis, Brendon J. Brewer, Dougal Mackey, Annette M. N. Ferguson, Yuan (Cher) Li, Tim Adams, 2023, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 518 (4), 5778-5787. Preprint.

The Lick AGN Monitoring Project 2016: Dynamical Modeling of Velocity-resolved Hβ Lags in Luminous Seyfert Galaxies
Lizvette Villafaña, Peter R. Williams, Tommaso Treu, Brendon J. Brewer, and many coauthors, 2022, The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 930, Issue 1, id.52, 23 pp. Preprint.

Properties of the Affine Invariant Ensemble Sampler's "Stretch Move" in high dimensions
David Huijser, Jesse Goodman, Brendon J. Brewer, 2022, Australian & New Zealand Journal of Statistics 64 (1), 1-26. Preprint.

The LBRY Trending Algorithm
2021, Draft paper, published to lbry://@BrendonBrewer:3/trendingdraft:b.

LibriVox | Public Domain Audiobooks
LBRY Channel which I maintain, based on a similar YouTube channel.

Dynamical Modeling of the CIV Broad Line Region of the z=2.805 Multiply Imaged Quasar SDSS J2222+2745
Williams, Peter R.; Treu, Tommaso; Dahle, Håkon; Valenti, Stefano; Abramson, Louis; Barth, Aaron J.; Brewer, Brendon J.; Dyrland, Karianne; Gladders, Michael; Horne, Keith; Sharon, Keren, 2021, The Astrophysical Journal Letters, Volume 915, Issue 1, id.L9, 6 pp. Preprint.

Predicting NRL Matches in 2021
Brendon J. Brewer, 2021, published to lbry://@BrendonBrewer:3/nrl2021:3.

Finding your feet: a Gaussian process model for estimating the abilities of batsmen in Test cricket
Oliver G. Stevenson and Brendon J. Brewer, 2021, Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series C, J 70: 481-506. Preprint.

Space Telescope and Optical Reverberation Mapping Project. XII. Broad-Line Region Modeling of NGC 5548
P. R. Williams, A. Pancoast, T. Treu, B. J. Brewer, and many coauthors, 2020, The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 902(1), 74. Preprint.

Research Note: A Connection Between Nested Sampling and Information Geometry
Brendon J. Brewer, 2020, published to lbry://@BrendonBrewer:3/ns-ig:6.

DNest4 for Statisticians
Brendon J. Brewer, 2020, published to lbry://@BrendonBrewer:3/dfs:5.

LBRYnomics: The Home of Live LBRY Statistics
Website by Mark Firth which used to display live data scraped by me.

The Globular Cluster Population of NGC 1052-DF2: Evidence for Rotation
Geraint F. Lewis, Brendon J. Brewer, and Zhen Wan, 2020, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters, Volume 491, Issue 1, p. L1–L5. Preprint.

Two major accretion epochs in M31 from two distinct populations of globular clusters
Dougal Mackey, Geraint F. Lewis, Brendon J. Brewer, Annette M. N. Ferguson, Jovan Veljanoski, Avon P. Huxor, Michelle L. M. Collins, Patrick Côté, Rodrigo A. Ibata, Mike J. Irwin, Nicolas Martin, Alan W. McConnachie, Jorge Peñarrubia, Nial Tanvir, Zhen Wan, 2019, Nature 574 (7776), 69–71. Preprint.

The SAMI Galaxy Survey: Bayesian Inference for Gas Disk Kinematics using a Hierarchical Gaussian Mixture Model
Mathew R. Varidel, Scott M. Croom, Geraint F. Lewis, Brendon J. Brewer, Enrico M. Di Teodoro, and more coauthors, 2019, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 485, 4024. Preprint.

The Lick AGN Monitoring Project 2011: Photometric Light Curves
Anna Pancoast and many coauthors including Brendon J. Brewer, 2019, The Astrophysical Journal, 871, 108. Paper.

Model selection and parameter inference in phylogenetics using Nested Sampling
Patricio Maturana R, Brendon J. Brewer, Steffen Klaere, and Remco Bouckaert, 2019, Systematic Biology 68, 219–233. Preprint.

Modelling Career Trajectories of Cricket Players Using Gaussian Processes.
Stevenson O. G., Brewer B. J. (2019) In: Argiento R., Durante D., Wade S. (eds) Bayesian Statistics and New Generations. BAYSM 2018. Springer Proceedings in Mathematics & Statistics, vol 296. Springer, Cham. Preprint.

The Lick AGN Monitoring Project 2011: Dynamical Modeling of the Broad-Line Region
Peter R. Williams, Anna Pancoast, Tommaso Treu, Brendon J. Brewer, Aaron J. Barth, and many coauthors. 2018, The Astrophysical Journal, 866(2), 75. Preprint.

DNest4: Diffusive Nested Sampling in C++ and Python
Brendon J. Brewer and Daniel Foreman-Mackey, 2018, Journal of Statistical Software, 86(7), 1–33. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.18637/jss.v086.i07 Paper Software.

AMORPH: A statistical program for characterizing amorphous materials by X-ray diffraction
Michael C. Rowe, Brendon J. Brewer, 2018, Computers and Geosciences, Volume 120, p. 21-31. Preprint Software.

kima: Exoplanet detection in radial velocities
J. P. Faria, N. C. Santos, P. Figueira, and B. J. Brewer, Journal of Open Source Software, 3(26), 487, https://doi.org/10.21105/joss.00487. Paper Software.

Stability of the broad line region geometry and dynamics in Arp 151 over seven years
A. Pancoast, A. J. Barth, K. Horne, T. Treu, B. J. Brewer, and many coauthors, 2018, The Astrophysical Journal, 856, 108. Preprint.

Computing Entropies with Nested Sampling
Brendon J. Brewer, 2017, Entropy, 19, 422. Paper Software.

The Structure of the Broad-Line Region In Active Galactic Nuclei. II. Dynamical Modeling of Data from the AGN10 Reverberation Mapping Campaign
C. J. Grier, A. Pancoast, A. J. Barth, M. M. Fausnaugh, B. J. Brewer, T. Treu, B. M. Peterson, 2017, The Astrophysical Journal, 849, 2. Preprint.

Red nuggets grow inside-out: evidence from gravitational lensing
Lindsay Oldham, Matthew W. Auger, Christopher D. Fassnacht, Tommaso Treu, Brendon J. Brewer, L.V.E. Koopmans, David Lagattuta, Philip Marshall, John McKean, Simona Vegetti, 2017, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 465, 3185. Preprint.

Bayesian survival analysis of batsmen in Test cricket
Oliver G. Stevenson and Brendon J. Brewer, 2017, Journal of Quantitative Analysis in Sports, 13(1): 25–36. Preprint.

What Experts Do and Don't Know
Brendon J. Brewer, 2016, article in Quillette. Available here.

The elusive stellar halo of the Triangulum Galaxy
B. McMonigal, G. F. Lewis, B. J. Brewer, M. J. Irwin, N. F. Martin, A. W. McConnachie, R. A. Ibata, A. M. N. Ferguson, A. D. Mackey, S. C. Chapman, 2016, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 461, 4374. Preprint.

The Mathematics of Happiness
Brendon J. Brewer, 2016, article in Quillette. Available here.

Unscrambling the second law of thermodynamics
Brendon J. Brewer, 2016, article in Quillette. Available here.

Uncovering the planets and stellar activity of CoRoT-7 using only radial velocities
J. P. Faria, R. D. Haywood, B. J. Brewer, P. Figueira, M. Oshagh, A. Santerne, N. C. Santos, 2016, Astronomy and Astrophysics 588, A31. Preprint.

Space Telescope and Optical Reverberation Mapping Project. IV. Anomalous behavior of the broad ultraviolet emission lines in NGC 5548.
M. R. Goad and many co-authors (including B. J. Brewer), 2016, The Astrophysical Journal, 824, 11. Preprint.

Space Telescope and Optical Reverberation Mapping Project. III. Optical Continuum Emission and Broad-Band Time Delays in NGC 5548
M. M. Fausnaugh and many co-authors (including B. J. Brewer), 2016, The Astrophysical Journal 821, 56. Preprint.

The Great Statistical Schism
Brendon J. Brewer, 2015, article in Quillette. Available here.

Trans-Dimensional Bayesian Inference for Gravitational Lens Substructures
Brendon J. Brewer, David Huijser, Geraint F. Lewis, 2016, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 455, 1819-1829. Preprint.

Bayesian Inference and Computation: A Beginner's Guide
Brendon J. Brewer, 2015, contribution to the XXVI Winter School of Astrophysics. To be published by Cambridge University Press. Preprint.

The Lick AGN Monitoring Project 2011: Spectroscopic Campaign and Emission-Line Light Curves
Barth, A. J. and many coauthors (including B. J. Brewer), 2015, The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, 217, 26. Preprint.

Fast Bayesian Inference for Exoplanet Discovery in Radial Velocity Data
Brendon J. Brewer, Courtney P. Donovan, 2015, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 446, 3206. Preprint.

Dissecting magnetar variability with Bayesian hierarchical models
D. Huppenkothen, B. J. Brewer, D. W. Hogg, I. Murray, M. Frean, C. Elenbaas, A. L. Watts, Y. Levin, A. J. van der Horst, C. Kouveliotou, 2015, The Astrophysical Journal, 810, 66. Preprint.

Space Telescope and Optical Reverberation Mapping Project. II. Swift and HST Reverberation Mapping of the Accretion Disk of NGC 5548
R. Edelson and many coauthors (including B. J. Brewer), 2015, The Astrophysical Journal, 806, 129. Preprint.

Space Telescope and Optical Reverberation Mapping Project. I. Ultraviolet Observations of the Seyfert 1 Galaxy NGC 5548 with the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph on Hubble Space Telescope
G. De Rosa and many coauthors (including B. J. Brewer), 2015, The Astrophysical Journal, 806, 128. Preprint.

Inference for Trans-dimensional Bayesian Models with Diffusive Nested Sampling
Brendon J. Brewer, 2014, arxiv only (for the time being). Preprint.

Modeling reverberation mapping data I: improved geometric and dynamical models and comparison with cross-correlation results
Anna Pancoast, Brendon J. Brewer, Tommaso Treu, 2014, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 445, 3055. Preprint.

Modeling reverberation mapping data II: dynamical modeling of the Lick AGN Monitoring Project 2008 dataset
Anna Pancoast, Brendon J. Brewer, Tommaso Treu, Daeseong Park, Aaron J. Barth, Misty C. Bentz, Jong-Hak Woo, 2014, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 445, 3073. Preprint.

Hierarchical Reverberation Mapping
Brendon J. Brewer, Tom M. Elliott, 2014, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 439, L31. Preprint.

The SWELLS Survey. VI. hierarchical inference of the initial mass functions of bulges and discs
Brendon J. Brewer, Philip J. Marshall, Matthew W. Auger, Tommaso Treu, Aaron A. Dutton, Matteo Barnabè, 2014, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 437, 1950. Preprint

A transdimensional Bayesian method to infer the star formation history of resolved stellar populations
J. J. Walmswell, J. J. Eldridge, B. J. Brewer and C. A. Tout, 2013, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 435, 2171. Preprint

The Lick AGN Monitoring Project 2011: Fe II Reverberation from the Outer Broad-Line Region
Aaron J. Barth, Anna Pancoast, Vardha N. Bennert, Brendon J. Brewer, and many coauthors, 2013, The Astrophysical Journal, 769, 128. Preprint

Probabilistic Catalogs for Crowded Stellar Fields
Brendon J. Brewer, Daniel Foreman-Mackey, David W. Hogg, 2013, The Astronomical Journal, 146, 7. Preprint

The SWELLS survey - V. A Salpeter stellar initial mass function in the bulges of massive spiral galaxies
A. A. Dutton, T. Treu, B. J. Brewer, P. J. Marshall, M. W. Auger, M. Barnabè, D. C. Koo, A. S. Bolton, L. V. E. Koopmans, 2013, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 428, 3183. Preprint

The Lick AGN Monitoring Project 2011: Dynamical Modeling of the Broad Line Region in Mrk50
Anna Pancoast, Brendon J. Brewer, Tommaso Treu, Aaron J. Barth and many coauthors, 2012, The Astrophysical Journal, 754, 49. Preprint

The SWELLS survey. IV. Precision measurements of the stellar and dark matter distributions in a spiral lens galaxy
Matteo Barnabè, Aaron A. Dutton, Philip J. Marshall, Matthew W. Auger, Brendon J. Brewer, Tommaso Treu, Adam S. Bolton, David C. Koo, Léon V. E. Koopmans,  2012, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 423, 1073. Preprint

The SWELLS survey. III. Disfavouring "heavy" initial mass functions for spiral lens galaxies
Brendon J. Brewer, Aaron A. Dutton, Tommaso Treu, Matthew W. Auger, Philip J. Marshall, Matteo Barnabè, Adam S. Bolton, David C. Koo, Léon V. E. Koopmans, 2012, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 422, 3574. Preprint

The Lick AGN Monitoring Project 2011: Reverberation Mapping of Markarian 50
A. J. Barth and many coauthors (including B. J. Brewer), 2011, The Astrophysical Journal, 743, L4. Preprint

Bayesian Analysis of Reverberation Mapping Data
Brendon J. Brewer, 2011, in Statistical Challenges in Modern Astronomy V. Preprint

The SWELLS Survey. I. A large spectroscopically selected sample of edge-on late-type lens galaxies
T.Treu, A. A. Dutton, M. W. Auger, P. J. Marshall, A. S. Bolton, B. J. Brewer, D. Koo, L. V. E. Koopmans, 2011, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 417, 1601. Preprint

The Mass of the Black Hole in Arp 151 from Bayesian Modeling of Reverberation Mapping Data
Brendon J. Brewer, Tommaso Treu, Anna Pancoast, Aaron J. Barth, Vardha N. Bennert, Misty C. Bentz, Alexei V. Filippenko, Jenny E. Greene, Matthew A. Malkan, and Jong-Hak Woo, 2011, The Astrophysical Journal Letters, 733, L33. Preprint

Geometric and Dynamical Models of Reverberation Mapping Data
Anna Pancoast, Brendon J. Brewer, Tommaso Treu, 2011, The Astrophysical Journal, 730, 139. Preprint

The SWELLS survey. II. Breaking the disk-halo degeneracy in the spiral galaxy gravitational lens SDSS J2141-0001
A. A. Dutton, B. J. Brewer, P. J. Marshall, M. W. Auger, T. Treu, D. C. Koo, A. S. Bolton, B. P. Holden, L. V. E. Koopmans, 2011, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 417, 1621. Preprint

A Compact Early-type Galaxy at z = 0.6 Under a Magnifying Lens: Evidence For Inside-out Growth
M. W. Auger, T. Treu, B. J. Brewer, P. J. Marshall, 2011, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Letters, 411, L6. Preprint

Modelling of the Complex CASSOWARY/SLUGS Gravitational Lenses
Brendon J. Brewer, Geraint F. Lewis, Vasily Belokurov, Michael J. Irwin, Terry J. Bridges, N. Wyn Evans, 2011, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 412, 2521. Preprint

A comparison of Bayesian and Fourier methods for frequency determination in asteroseismology
Timothy R. White, Brendon J. Brewer, Timothy R. Bedding, Dennis Stello, Hans Kjeldsen, 2010, Communications in Asteroseismology. Preprint

AAOmega Observations of 47 Tucanae: Evidence for a Past Merger?
Richard R. Lane, Brendon J. Brewer, Laszlo L. Kiss, Geraint F. Lewis, Rodrigo A. Ibata, Arnaud Siebert, Timothy R. Bedding, Peter Szekely, Gyula M. Szabo, 2010, The Astrophysical Journal Letters 711, L122-L126. Preprint

Diffusive Nested Sampling
Brendon J. Brewer, Livia B. Pártay, Gábor Csányi, Statistics and Computing, 2011, 21, 4, 649-656. Preprint

Entropic Priors and Bayesian Model Selection
B. J. Brewer and M. J. Francis, 2009, in AIP Conference Proceedings, vol. 1193, no. 1, pp. 179-186, AIP. Preprint

Low-Energy Astrophysics: Stimulating the Reduction of Energy Consumption in the Next Decade
Marshall, P.J., Bennert, N., Rykoff, E.S., Shen, K.J., Steinfadt, J.D.R., Fregeau, J., Chary, R.-R., Sheth, K., Weiner, B., Henisey, K.B., Quetin, E.L., Antonucci, R., Kaplan, D., Jonsson, P., Auger, M.W., Cardamone, C., Tao, T., Holz, D.E., Bradac, M., Metcalfe, T.S., McHugh, S., Elvis, M., Brewer, B.J., Urrutia, T., Guo, F., Hovest, W., NakThe Astronomical Journalima, R., For, B.-Q., Erb, D., Paneque, D., 2009, Astro2010: The Astronomy and Astrophysics Decadal Survey, Position Papers, no. 35. Preprint.

Gaussian Process Modelling of Asteroseismic Data
B. J. Brewer and D. Stello, 2009, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 395, 2226. Preprint

Unlensing HST Observations of the Einstein Ring 1RXS J1131-1231: A Bayesian Analysis
B. J. Brewer, G. F. Lewis, 2008, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 390, 39. Preprint

The Implications of the Early Formation of Life on Earth
Brendon J. Brewer, was submitted, but I withdrew it because the referee didn't like it and I'm still thinking through the issues. Arxiv only. Preprint

A Molecular Einstein Ring at z=4.12: Imaging the Dynamics of a Quasar Host Galaxy Through a Cosmic Lens
Dominik A. Riechers, Fabian Walter, Brendon J. Brewer, Christopher L. Carilli, Geraint F. Lewis, Frank Bertoldi and Pierre Cox, 2008, The Astrophysical Journal, 686, 851. Preprint

Getting Your Eye In: A Bayesian Analysis of Early Dismissals in Cricket
B. J. Brewer, was submitted to a journal but vanished into the aether after the first revision. Arxiv only. Preprint

Solar-like oscillations in the metal-poor subgiant nu Indi: II. Acoustic spectrum and mode lifetime
F. Carrier, H. Kjeldsen, T. R. Bedding, B. J. Brewer, R. P. Butler, P. Eggenberger, F. Grundahl, C. McCarthy, A. Retter, C. G. Tinney, 2007, Astronomy and Astrophysics, 470, 1059. Preprint

Solar-like oscillations in the G2 subgiant beta Hydri from dual-site observations
Timothy R. Bedding, Hans Kjeldsen, Torben Arentoft, Francois Bouchy, Jacob Brandbyge, Brendon J. Brewer, R. Paul Butler, Joergen Christensen-Dalsgaard, Thomas Dall, Soeren Frandsen, Christoffer Karoff, Laszlo L. Kiss, Mario J.P.F.G. Monteiro, Frank P. Pijpers, Teresa C. Teixeira, C. G. Tinney, Ivan K. Baldry, Fabien Carrier, Simon J. O'Toole, 2007, The Astrophysical Journal, 663, 1315. Preprint

Bayesian Inference from Observations of Solar-Like Oscillations
B. J. Brewer, T. R. Bedding, H. Kjeldsen and D. Stello, The Astrophysical Journal, 2007, 654, 551B. Preprint

The evolution of host mass and black hole mass in QSOs from the 2dF QSO Redshift Survey
S. Fine, S. M. Croom, L. Miller, A. Babic, D. Moore, B. Brewer, R. G. Sharp, B. J. Boyle, T. Shanks, R. J. Smith, P. J. Outram, N. S. Loaring, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 2006, 373, 613F. Preprint

The Einstein Ring 0047-2808 Revisited: A Bayesian Inversion
B. J. Brewer and G. F. Lewis, The Astrophysical Journal, 2006, 651, 8. Preprint

Solar-like oscillations in the metal-poor subgiant nu Indi: constraining the mass and age using asteroseismology
T. R. Bedding, R. P. Butler, F. Carrier, F. Bouchy, B. J. Brewer, P. Eggenberger, F. Grundahl, H. Kjeldsen, C. McCarthy, T. B. Nielsen, A. Retter, C. G. Tinney, The Astrophysical Journal, 2006, 647, 558. Preprint

Strong Gravitational Lens Inversion: A Bayesian Approach
B. J. Brewer and G. F. Lewis, The Astrophysical Journal, 2006, 637, 608. Preprint

The light curve of the semiregular variable L2 Puppis: II. Evidence for solar-like excitation of the oscillations
T. R. Bedding, L. L. Kiss, H. Kjeldsen, B. J. Brewer, Z. E. Dind, S. D. Kawaler, A. A. Zijlstra, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 2005, 361, 1375. Preprint

Probing Sub parsec Structure in the Lyman Alpha Forest with Gravitational Microlensing
B. J. Brewer and G. F. Lewis, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 2005, 356, 703. Preprint Honours thesis (PDF, 1.97 Mb)

When Darwin met Einstein: Gravitational Lens Inversion with Genetic Algorithms
B. J. Brewer and G. F. Lewis, Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia, 2005, 22, 128. Preprint 3rd year report (DOC, 335 kb)

Bayesian Estimation and Cricket
Brendon J. Brewer, 2005. Just for fun. Available here