A composite likelihood cross-validation approach in selecting bandwidth for the estimation of the pair correlation function

A useful tool while analysing spatial point patterns is the pair correlation function (e.g. Fractals, Random Shapes and Point Fields, Wiley, New York, 1994). In practice, this function is often estimated by some nonparametric procedure such as kernel smoothing, where the smoothing parameter (i.e. bandwidth) is often determined arbitrarily. In this article, a data-driven method for the selection of the bandwidth is proposed. The efficacy of the proposed approach is studied through both simulations and an application to a forest data example.