1206.3462 (L. B. Lucy)

Bayesian inference for orbital eccentricities    [PDF]

L. B. Lucy

Highest posterior density (HPD) intervals are derived for the true eccentricities of spectroscopic binaries with measured values e near 0. This is achieved by adopting an informative prior representing orbital decay due to tidal dissipation. These HPD intervals yield upper limits when e is below the detection threshold e_th and seamlessly transform to upper and lower bounds when e > e_th. Sampling experiments confirm the validity of the HPD intervals.

View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1206.3462