arXiv:1703.09824astro-ph.IM
Understanding the Lomb-Scargle Periodogram
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Abstract
The Lomb-Scargle periodogram is a well-known algorithm for detecting and characterizing periodic signals in unevenly-sampled data. This paper presents a conceptual introduction to the Lomb-Scargle periodogram and important practical considerations for its use. Rather than a rigorous mathematical treatment, the goal of this paper is to build intuition about what assumptions are implicit in the use of the Lomb-Scargle periodogram and related estimators of periodicity, so as to motivate important practical considerations required in its proper application and interpretation.