Name of the Speaker(s): Alberto C. Sadun
Title of the communication: Chaos Analysis of the Light
Curve of the Blazar OJ 287.
Preliminary abstract (12 lines max.):
Flux variability of the blazar OJ 287 has been analyzed using principally the OJ-94 project
data. This analysis uses a myriad of nonlinear techniques. Besides conventional methods,
such as looking at the autocorrelation function, phase space plots for attractors, the
correlation dimension as a measure of underlying structure, and using maximum entropy
to uncover dominant frequencies, some less conventional techniques are employed as well.
In particular, the twin techniques of singular value decomposition (for noise removal) and
model fits to dynamical behavior are used to great effect. Strange attractors are found and
correlations are established. The results thus obtained are discussed, and constraints are
given for further theoretical consideration.