http://arxiv.org/abs/1604.07984
Fluxes emitted at different wavebands from active galactic nuclei (AGNs) fluctuate at both long and short timescales. The variation can typically be characterized by a broadband power spectrum, which exhibits a red-noise process at high frequencies. The standard method of estimating power spectral density (PSD) of AGN variability is easily affected by systematic biases such as red-noise leakage and aliasing, in particular, when the observation spans a relatively short period and is gapped. Focusing on the high-frequency PSD that is strongly distorted due to red-noise leakage and usually not significantly affected by aliasing, we develop a novel and observable normalized leakage spectrum (NLS), which describes sensitively the effects of leaked red-noise power on the PSD at different temporal frequencies. Using Monte Carlo simulations, we demonstrate how an AGN underlying PSD sensitively determines the NLS when there is severe red-noise leakage and thereby how the NLS can be used to effectively constrain the underlying PSD.
S. Zhu and Y. Xue
Thu, 28 Apr 16
5/57
Comments: Accepted for publication in ApJ (14 pages, 13 figures, 1 table)
You must be logged in to post a comment.