Bibcode
Deeg, H. J.
Bibliographical reference
Astronomy and Astrophysics, Volume 578, id.A17, 5 pp.
Advertised on:
6
2015
Journal
Citations
5
Refereed citations
5
Description
Space missions such as Kepler and CoRoT have led to large numbers of
eclipse or transit measurements in nearly continuous time series. This
paper shows how to obtain the period error in such measurements from a
basic linear least-squares fit, and how to correctly derive the timing
error in the prediction of future transit or eclipse events. Assuming
strict periodicity, a formula for the period error of these time series
is derived, σP = σT (12 /
(N3-N))1 / 2, where σP is the
period error, σT the timing error of a single
measurement, and N the number of measurements. Compared to the iterative
method for period error estimation by Mighell & Plavchan (2013),
this much simpler formula leads to smaller period errors, whose
correctness has been verified through simulations. For the prediction of
times of future periodic events, usual linear ephemeris were epoch
errors are quoted for the first time measurement, are prone to an
overestimation of the error of that prediction. This may be avoided by a
correction for the duration of the time series. An alternative is the
derivation of ephemerides whose reference epoch and epoch error are
given for the centre of the time series. For long continuous or
near-continuous time series whose acquisition is completed, such central
epochs should be the preferred way for the quotation of linear
ephemerides. While this work was motivated from the analysis of eclipse
timing measures in space-based light curves, it should be applicable to
any other problem with an uninterrupted sequence of discrete timings for
which the determination of a zero point, of a constant period and of the
associated errors is needed.
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