Title :
A Statistical Analysis of the Detection Limits in Fast Photometry
Author_Institution :
Aryabhatta Res. Inst. of Obs. Sci., Nainital
Abstract :
This work investigates the statistical limits for the detection of rapid stellar variations using ground based fast photometry. We show that the noise to be accounted for is of a mixed Poisson (MP) nature (photon noise mixed by scintillation). As a consequence, three regimes appear for the detection depending on the star´s brightness: scintillation; scintillation and photon noise; photon noise and sky background. Both cases of periodic and non periodic signals are investigated. In the case of periodic stellar variations, the minimum amplitude variation that one can detect with a given confidence level is evaluated by analysing the statistics of the MP noise periodogram. The theoretical detection limits are discussed at the light of photometric data obtained on various astronomical sites
Keywords :
statistical analysis; stellar photometry; stellar spectra; astronomical sites; detection limits; ground based fast photometry; mixed Poisson; noise periodogram; photon noise; scintillation; statistical analysis; stellar variations; Background noise; Brightness; Chemicals; Noise level; Optical filters; Photometry; Signal to noise ratio; Solid scintillation detectors; Statistical analysis; Telescopes;
Conference_Titel :
Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing, 2006. ICASSP 2006 Proceedings. 2006 IEEE International Conference on
Conference_Location :
Toulouse
Print_ISBN :
1-4244-0469-X
DOI :
10.1109/ICASSP.2006.1660706