We present the construction of a novel time-domain signature extraction methodology and the development of a supporting supervised pattern detection algorithm. We focus on the targeted identification of eclipsing binaries that demonstrate a feature known as the O'Connell effect. Our proposed methodology maps stellar variable observations to a new representation known as distribution fields (DFs). Given this novel representation, we develop a metric learning technique directly on the DF space that is capable of specifically identifying our stars of interest. The metric is tuned on a set of labeled eclipsing binary data from the Kepler survey, targeting particular systems exhibiting the O'Connell effect. The result is a conservative selection of 124 potential targets of interest out of the Villanova Eclipsing Binary Catalog. Our framework demonstrates favorable performance on Kepler eclipsing binary data, taking a crucial step in preparing the way for large-scale data volumes from next-generation telescopes such as LSST and SKA.
@article{arxiv.1911.03543,
title = {A Detection Metric Designed for O'Connell Effect Eclipsing Binaries},
author = {Kyle B. Johnston and Rana Haber and Saida M. Caballero-Nieves and Adrian M. Peter and V'eronique Petit and Matt Knote},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1911.03543},
year = {2019}
}