# Past agenda

## 2025 Winter semester

- 05.11.2025: Walkthrough of NuSTAR data analysis + Basic concepts of spectral fitting (Part I)
    - Lecturers: Menglei Zhou & Honghui Liu
    - Setting up HEASOFT, calibration data base, dealing with NuSTAR data (spectra and lightcurve), data fitting in XSPEC.
- 12.11.2025: Walkthrough of NICER data analysis + Basic concepts of spectral fitting (Part II)
    - Lecturers: Menglei Zhou & Honghui Liu
    - NICER pipelines, background filtering, simulating spectra in XSPEC.
- 19.11.2025: Timing analysis — from light curves to power spectra
    - Lecturers: Menglei Zhou & Honghui Liu
    - NICER event file, light curves, Fast Fourier Transformation, power density spectra, quasi-periodic oscillations, root-mean-squared (RMS), phase lag and time lag.
- 26.11.2025: Polarization analysis — handling IXPE data
    - Lecturers: Menglei Zhou & Honghui Liu
    - Detection principles, statistics (STOKES parameters), reduction of IXPE data, background treatment, (un-)weighted analysis, PCUBE, XSPEC fitting (POLCONST, POLLIN, etc), MDP99.
- 03.12.2025: Pulsar timing (Part I)
    - Lecturers: Youli Tuo & Menglei Zhou & Honghui Liu
    - Barycenter correction, binary correction, pulse search, lightcurve folding (pulse profiles), phase-resolved spectroscopy
- 10.12.2025: (1) **Talk by Tarjar Risstad:** Dark matter search with eROSITA data; (2) X-ray reflection spectroscopy
    - Lecturers: Honghui Liu & Menglei Zhou

**Christmas break until 13.01.2026**

- 14.01.2026: Statistics in X-ray data analysis
    - Maximum likelihood estimation, chi-squared and C-stat, confidence intervals, ftest, line detection, AICs, BIC
    - Lecturers: Honghui Liu & Menglei Zhou
- 21.01.2026: Phase-resolved analysis for `heartbeat' data
    - Lecturer: Florian Sanzenbacher
- 28.01.2026: Talk by Professor Ingyin Zaw (NYU Abu Dhabi)
    - PhD, Postdoc and other opportunities at NYU Abu Dhabi
- 04.02.2026: Constructing table models in XSPEC for returning radiation effects
    - Lecturer: Konstantinos Kourmpetis

**Semester break until 01.04.2026**