It is often necessary for astronomers to
interpret observational data in terms of periodic variation, or an additive
combination of periodic variations. This paper shows how statistics relating to
periodic variation—the frequency, amplitude and phase - may be
inferred from raw observational data and, just as importantly, it provides
estimates for the accuracy of such statistics in terms of the observational
error. Formulae are given to enable the extraction of these statistics,
together with error bounds that apply. Their use is illustrated by
synthetically derived data which also serve to demonstrate, by Monte-Carlo methods,
the veracity of these formulae.
Cite this paper
Howarth, J. J. (2014). Calculation of Statistics Relating to Periodic Variation. Open Access Library Journal, 1, e640. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/oalib.1100640.
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