Signal detection for spectroscopy and polarimetry

Asensio-Ramos, A.; Manso-Sainz, R.
Bibliographical reference

Highlights of Spanish Astrophysics VII, Proceedings of the X Scientific Meeting of the Spanish Astronomical Society (SEA), held in Valencia, July 9 - 13, 2012, Eds.: J.C. Guirado, L.M. Lara, V. Quilis, and J. Gorgas., pp.771-775

Advertised on:
5
2013
Number of authors
2
IAC number of authors
2
Citations
0
Refereed citations
0
Description
Spectroscopic and spectropolarimetric observations with high spectral resolution provide extremely rich information on the physical conditions of distant celestial objects; sometimes, even the mere presence of a spectroscopic or polarimetric pattern may offer fundamental insights. But these are photon-starving techniques. Signals are often at the noise level or buried in it and, many times, just detection proves difficult. Here we present a Bayesian technique for the detection of spectropolarimetric signals based on the application of the non-parametric relevance vector machine to the observations, which allows computing the evidence for the presence of a signal and its most probable value.