Is Hercules X-1 a Strange Attractor?
Abstract
Several tests are described which contradict the claims of Voges, Altmanspacher, and Scheingraber (1987) of the existence of a time series of X-ray intensity measurements of Hercules X-1 characterized by an attractor of fractal dimensionality. The most important consideration is that sufficient signal-to-noise strength is not available on the short time scale of interest in the Exosat ME or HEAO A-1 observations to distinguish between a possible strange attractor and an ordinary attractor contaminated by noise. The resultant smearing of points in the reconstructed phase space thereby necessarily leads to spurious results in the claimed measure of dimensionality. The utilization of predictive analysis techniques is suggested in order to more firmly establish the presence of deterministic chaos.
- Publication:
-
The Astrophysical Journal
- Pub Date:
- November 1989
- DOI:
- 10.1086/168071
- Bibcode:
- 1989ApJ...346..912N
- Keywords:
-
- Computational Astrophysics;
- Hercules Nova;
- Pulsars;
- Strange Attractors;
- X Ray Binaries;
- Data Sampling;
- Fourier Transformation;
- Heao 1;
- Signal To Noise Ratios;
- Stellar Oscillations;
- Astrophysics;
- NUMERICAL METHODS;
- PULSARS;
- STARS: INDIVIDUAL CONSTELLATION NAME: HERCULES X-1;
- X-RAYS: BINARIES