On minimum contrast method for multivariate spatial point processes

Compared to widely used likelihood-based approaches, the minimum contrast (MC) method offers a computationally efficient approach for estimation and inference of spatial point processes. These relative gains in computing time become more pronounced when analyzing complicated multivariate point process models. Despite this, there has been little exploration of the MC method for multivariate spatial point processes. Therefore, this article introduces a new MC method for parametric multivariate spatial point processes. In our approach, a contrast function is computed based on the trace of the power of the difference between the conjectured K-function matrix and its nonparametric unbiased edge-corrected estimator. Under standard assumptions, we derive the asymptotic normality of our MC estimator. The performance of the proposed method is demonstrated through simulation studies of bivariate log-Gaussian Cox processes and five-variate product-shot-noise Cox processes.