Determine the rotation period of asteroid 2968 despite daily aliases

Determine the rotation period of asteroid 2968 (Iliya) among the candidate periods near 4.560, 4.16, and 3.83 hours, resolving the daily-alias ambiguity that cannot be settled with the present combined Minor Planet Center photometry.

Background

The combined-dataset Lomb–Scargle analysis of asteroid 2968 identifies a strongest peak at 4.560 hours, while daily aliases near 3.83 and 4.16 hours have only slightly weaker power. The separate-dataset analysis likewise yields three candidate periods with comparable significance values, leaving the adopted period insufficiently discriminated from its aliases.

Resolving this problem would establish the physical rotation period of asteroid 2968 and determine whether additional observations or improved treatment of sampling aliases are required.

References

However, the power of this period is low and close to that of its aliases and of the window function peaks, so the alias periods of $3.83$ and $4.16$ hours cannot be excluded with the present data, and the period of 2968 remains ambiguous.

— Combination of multi-observatory photometry to determine asteroid rotation periods  (2610.13223 - Nagainis et al., 9 Oct 2026) in Section 3, subsection “(2968) Iliya”

Because the C-method clearly prefers the $10.474$ hour period, it is the most likely one, but the alias at $13.405$ hours, which has the higher $\log\xi$ in the S-method, cannot be excluded completely.

— Combination of multi-observatory photometry to determine asteroid rotation periods  (2610.13223 - Nagainis et al., 9 Oct 2026) in Section 3, subsection “(3716) Petzval”