Random time series in Astronomy

Abstract

Progress in astronomy comes from interpreting the signals encoded in the light received from distant objects: the distribution of light over the sky (images), over photon wavelength (spectrum), over polarization angle, and over time (usually called light curves by astronomers). In the time domain we see transient events such as supernovae, gamma-ray bursts, and other powerful explosions; we see periodic phenomena such as the orbits of planets around nearby stars, radio pulsars, and pulsations of stars in nearby galaxies; and persistent aperiodic variations (`noise') from powerful systems like accreting black holes. I review just a few of the recent and future challenges in the burgeoning area of Time Domain Astrophysics, with particular attention to persistently variable sources, the recovery of reliable noise power spectra from sparsely sampled time series, higher-order properties of accreting black holes, and time delays and correlations in multivariate time series.

28 pages, 10 figures. Prepared for the meeting "Signal processing and inference for the physical sciences"

References in corpus (7)

• Kepler Observations of Rapid Optical Variability in Active Galactic Nuclei
• The Universal Nature of Accretion-induced Variability: The RMS-Flux Relation in an Accreting White Dwarf
• Maximum likelihood fitting of X-ray power density spectra: Application to high-frequency quasi-periodic oscillations from the neutron star X-ray binary 4U1608-522
• The Ubiquity of the rms-flux relation in Black Hole X-ray Binaries
• Fourier Analysis of Gapped Time Series: Improved Estimates of Solar and Stellar Oscillation Parameters
• Wide Field Surveys and Astronomical Discovery Space
• Artifacts with uneven sampling of red noise

Cited by in corpus (14)

• False periodicities in quasar time-domain surveys
• No Time for Dead Time: Timing analysis of bright black hole binaries with NuSTAR
• Individual power density spectra of Swift gamma-ray bursts
• Looking at Blazar Light Curve Periodicities with Gaussian Processes
• Studies in Astronomical Time Series Analysis: VII. An Enquiry Concerning Non-Linearity, the RMS-Mean Flux Relation, and log-Normal Flux Distributions
• Correlation between peak energy and Fourier power density spectrum slope in gamma-ray bursts
• Search for Quasi-Periodical Oscillations in Precursors of Short and Long Gamma Ray Bursts
• Electromagnetic radiation of charged particles in stochastic motion
• Statistical Signatures of Nanoflare Activity. II. A Nanoflare Explanation for Periodic Brightenings in Flare Stars observed by NGTS
• GRB 201104A: A "Repetitive" Short Gamma-Ray Burst?
• Entanglement Assisted Non-local Optical Interferometry in a Quantum Network
• Influence of the Galactic gravitational field on the positional accuracy of extragalactic sources. II Observational appearances and detectability
• Complexity measures and occurrence of the breaking point in the neutron and gamma-rays time series measured with organic scintillators
• X-ray Quasi-Periodic Oscillations in Active Galactic Nuclei and Their Implications for the Changing Look Phenomenon