Frequency Estimation Using Unequally-Spaced Astronomical Data.
James Dennis Reimann · 1994
This thesis studies estimation of the frequency of a periodic function of time, when the function is observed with noise at a collection of unequally-spaced times. This research was motivated by the detection and classification of variable stars in astronomy. Most of the statistical literature on frequency estimation assumes equally-spaced times, but observation times in astronomy are often unequally-spaced with a sampling distribution that contains periodic effects due to being able to collect data only at certain times of day. In Chapter 1 we describe the database of variable stars collected by the MACHO collaboration and present examples which illustrate the common types of variable stars and the nature of the estimation problem. In Chapter 2 we provide background material and give models for the periodic function and sampling times. We derive the ...