The Phase Binned Analysis of Variance (AoV) method, published by Schwarzenberg-Cerny1, computes an AoV periodogram, and is very well suited for period finding in non-sinusoidal signals. It employs phase folding and phase binning (step function model), by binning and folding the observations with a series of test periods, and then measuring the variance of the observations within each bin. If it finds a minimum value of the variance at some folding period, then it is likely that the star has a real period at or near that folding period.


The Phase-binned AoV dialog box is similar to the Lomb-Scargle dialog box, but allows to enter Nb (number of bins) and Nc (so called "covers" of Nb bins) values in the Additional parameters section. Prominent periods of the Period Window appear as peaks.


(1) Schwarzenberg-Czerny, A., Mon. Not. R. astr. Soc. (1989) 241, 153-165