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Session 86 - Rotating, Modeling and Blue Stars.
Oral session, Wednesday, January 15
Harbour C,
Matrix lightcurve inversion (MLI) is a method for deducing the appearance of a rapidly-rotating star's surface features (in particular starspots) from its photometric lightcurve. It has the significant advantage over "spot models" that no a priori assumptions are made regarding the number of spots on the surface or their shapes. We present here the results of an extensive set of simulations using synthetic lightcurves generated from artificial surfaces. These have allowed us to test the ability of MLI to reconstruct stellar surfaces under conditions in which the true surface features are known. We demonstrate that MLI represents a viable alternative to other techniques such as spot models and Doppler imaging, and is of particular value when used in conjunction with such techniques.
