Results of the NMF decomposition and rescaling on the basis of a real RXTE observational dataset of Cen X-3. Panel a shows the pulse profile of Cen X-3 as the red line and the average PCVA decomposition in blue and yellow. Two pulse phases are shown for clarity. The estimated minimum and maximum uncertainties are shown in the upper right hand corner of the panel. The two components are qualitatively similar when one of the components is reflected and shifted in phase. The angles between the minima and maxima of each component are 67.5° and between the two components are 90° and 45°. An example of the components prior to the rescaling are shown as dashed lines. Panel b shows the correlation matrix corresponding to the RXTE observation of Cen X-3. The presence of distinct structures in the correlation matrix suggests that the phase-resolved light curves exhibit the correlation properties described in the text. Panels c and d show the correlation matrices of the phase-resolved light curves based on the PCVA decomposition before and after rescaling of the components, respectively.