On the analysis of light curves in asteroseismology

Abstract

We provide a detailed introduction to the main problems arising when analyzing light curves in asteroseismology. Attention is first paid to the signal model delivered by the pulsating stars and to the noise sources corrupting this model in photometric observations. The main pitfalls and ambiguities occurring in Fourier analysis are summarized and illustrated. Someclassical, Least Squares (LS) based methods for spectrum analysis are analyzed and commented on from the point of view of ill-posed problems. The insight that can be gained from such analyses is discussed.