Modeling complex systems by Generalized Factor Analysis

We propose a new modeling paradigm for large dimensional aggregates of stochastic systems by Generalized Factor Analysis (GFA) models. These models describe the data as the sum of a flocking plus an uncorrelated idiosyncratic component. The flocking component describes a sort of collective orderly motion which admits a much simpler mathematical description than the whole ensemble while the idiosyncratic component describes weakly correlated noise. We first discuss static GFA representations and characterize in a rigorous way the properties of the two components. The extraction of the dynamic flocking component is discussed for time-stationary linear systems and for a simple classes of separable random fields.Comment: 15 pages, preprint submitted for publication to IEEE Trans. on Automatic Contro

On a class of space-time intrinsic random functions

Power law generalized covariance functions provide a simple model for describing the local behavior of an isotropic random field. This work seeks to extend this class of covariance functions to spatial-temporal processes for which the degree of smoothness in space and in time may differ while maintaining other desirable properties for the covariance functions, including the availability of explicit convergent and asymptotic series expansions.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.3150/11-BEJ405 the Bernoulli (http://isi.cbs.nl/bernoulli/) by the International Statistical Institute/Bernoulli Society (http://isi.cbs.nl/BS/bshome.htm