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Paper: Characterizing X-ray Variability Processes in AGN
Volume: 350, Blazar Variability Workshop II: Entering the GLAST Era
Page: 51
Authors: Markowitz, A.
Abstract: We comment on searches for characteristic X-ray variability timescales in the red-noise light curves of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN). Methods for identification of such features and determining their statistical significance are discussed. Pros and cons of two common tools, the power spectral density function (PSD) and the structure function (SF), are reviewed. Caveats associated with identification of quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs) in the presence of rednoise variability are also discussed. A central point of this paper is to make all readers aware that there already exist good references out there for determining the statistical significance of claims of characteristic variability time scales.
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