Spurious results from Fourier analysis of data with closely spaced frequencies

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics

Scientific paper

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Errors, Fourier Analysis, Periodic Variations, Convolution Integrals, Cycles, Frequency Analyzers, Stellar Evolution

Scientific paper

It is shown that closely spaced frequencies in multiply periodic data (e.g., frequencies of certain Delta Scuti and Beta Cephei stars) can be misidentified by some period-finding methods, specifically Fourier analysis, when too short a data length is used. Empirical tests of simulated data containing two sinusoids of equal amplitude indicate that the spurious results depend only on the data length in relation to the frequencies present and are governed by the difference in true frequencies, the relative amplitudes, the data time span, and the relative phases at t = 0. Results of a Fourier calculation are presented which demonstrate how cross terms in the power of the data transform are responsible for the erroneous results. It is suggested that the width between the most negative values of the third-term hump (roughly equal to 1.5 divided by the data length) may be employed as a rule-of-thumb criterion for determining the upper limit of reasonably accurate frequency resolution.

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