Photometric instabilities of \beta Lyr were observed in 2016 by two red-filter BRITE satellites over more than 10 revolutions of the binary , with \sim 100-minute sampling .
Analysis of the time series shows that flares or fading events take place typically 3 to 5 times per binary orbit .
The amplitudes of the disturbances ( relative to the mean light curve , in units of the maximum out-of-eclipse light-flux , f.u . )
are characterized by a Gaussian distribution with \sigma = 0.0130 \pm 0.0004 f.u .
Most of the disturbances appear to be random , with a tendency to remain for one or a few orbital revolutions , sometimes changing from brightening to fading or the reverse .
Phases just preceding the center of the deeper eclipse showed the most scatter while phases around secondary eclipse were the quietest .
This implies that the invisible companion is the most likely source of the instabilities .
Wavelet transform analysis showed domination of the variability scales at phase intervals 0.05 - 0.3 ( 0.65–4 d ) , with the shorter ( longer ) scales dominating in numbers ( variability power ) in this range .
The series can be well described as a stochastic Gaussian process with the signal at short timescales showing a slightly stronger correlation than red noise .
The signal de-correlation timescale \tau = ( 0.068 \pm 0.018 ) in phase or ( 0.88 \pm 0.23 ) d appears to follow the same dependence on the accretor mass as that observed for AGN and QSO masses 5–9 orders of magnitude larger than the \beta Lyr torus-hidden component .