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High-pass Filter Periodogram: An Improved Power Spectral Density Estimator for Unevenly Sampled Data

Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics 2024-11-06 v1 Data Analysis, Statistics and Probability

Abstract

Accurate time series analysis is essential for studying variable astronomical sources, where detecting periodicities and characterizing power spectral density (PSD) are crucial. The Lomb-Scargle periodogram, commonly used in astronomy for analyzing unevenly sampled time series data, often suffers from noise introduced by irregular sampling. This paper presents a new high-pass filter (HPF) periodogram, a novel implementation designed to mitigate this sampling-induced noise. By applying a frequency-dependent high-pass filter before computing the periodogram, the HPF method enhances the precision of PSD estimates and periodicity detection across a wide range of signal characteristics. Simulations and comparisons with the Lomb-Scargle periodogram demonstrate that the HPF periodogram improves accuracy and reliability under challenging sampling conditions, making it a valuable complementary tool for more robust time series analysis in astronomy and other fields dealing with unevenly sampled data.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2411.02656,
  title  = {High-pass Filter Periodogram: An Improved Power Spectral Density Estimator for Unevenly Sampled Data},
  author = {Ezequiel Albentosa-Ruiz and Nicola Marchili},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2411.02656},
  year   = {2024}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-28T19:48:15.195Z