Nonparametric Methods in Astronomy: Think, Regress, Observe -- Pick Any Three

Telescopes are much more expensive than astronomers, so it is essential to minimize required sample sizes by using the most data-efficient statistical methods possible. However, the most commonly used model-independent techniques for finding the relationship between two variables in astronomy are flawed. In the worst case they can lead without warning to subtly yet catastrophically wrong results, and even in the best case they require more data than necessary. Unfortunately, there is no single best technique for nonparametric regression. Instead, we provide a guide for how astronomers can choose the best method for their specific problem and provide a python library with both wrappers for the most useful existing algorithms and implementations of two new algorithms developed here.Comment: 19 pages, PAS

Enhancing the Instantaneous Dynamic Range of Electronic Warfare Receivers Using Statistical Signal Processing

Accurately processing multiple, time-coincident signals presents a challenge to Electronic Warfare (EW) receivers, especially if the signals are close in frequency and/or mismatched in amplitude. The metric that quantifies an EW receiver\u27s ability to measure time-coincident signals is the Instantaneous Dynamic Range (IDR), defined for a given frequency estimation accuracy, a given frequency separation and a given SNR as the maximum signal amplitude ratio that can be accommodated. Using a two sinusoid time-series model, this thesis analyzes IDR for ideal intercept and parametric digital EW receivers. In general, the number of signals contained in the EW receiver measurement interval is unknown. Thus, the non-parametric Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) is employed in an EW intercept receiver with the associated amplitude dependent spectral leakage which limits IDR. A novel method to improve the DFT-based intercept receiver IDR by compensating for the high amplitude signal\u27s spectral leakage using computationally efficient 3 bin interpolation algorithms is proposed and analyzed. For a desired frequency estimation accuracy of 1.5 bins, the method achieves an IDR of 57 dB with little frequency separation dependence when the signals are separated by more than 2 bins with a low amplitude signal SNR of 10 dB. For situations where the number of signals contained in the measurement interval is known, the IDR of an Iterative Generalized Least Squares (IGLS) algorithm-based parametric receiver is analyzed. A real and complex signal IDR Cramer-Rao Bound (IDR-CRB) is derived for parametric receivers by extending results contained in Rife. For tight frequency estimate requirements (these requirements depend on the number of measurement samples), the IDR-CRB yields achievable bounds. For less stringent frequency estimate requirements, the IDR-CRB is unrealisti

Frequency Estimation Of Single-Tone Sinusoids Under Additive And Phase Noise

We investigate the performance of main frequency estimation methods for a single-component complex sinusoid under complex additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) as well as phase noise (PN). Two methods are under test: Maximum Likelihood (ML) method using Fast Fourier Transform (FFT), and the autocorrelation method (Corr). Simulation results showed that FFT-method has superior performance as compared to the Corr-method in the presence of additive white Gaussian noise (affecting the amplitude) and phase noise, with almost 20dB difference

The azimuth structure of nuclear collisions -- I

We describe azimuth structure commonly associated with elliptic and directed flow in the context of 2D angular autocorrelations for the purpose of precise separation of so-called nonflow (mainly minijets) from flow. We extend the Fourier-transform description of azimuth structure to include power spectra and autocorrelations related by the Wiener-Khintchine theorem. We analyze several examples of conventional flow analysis in that context and question the relevance of reaction plane estimation to flow analysis. We introduce the 2D angular autocorrelation with examples from data analysis and describe a simulation exercise which demonstrates precise separation of flow and nonflow using the 2D autocorrelation method. We show that an alternative correlation measure based on Pearson's normalized covariance provides a more intuitive measure of azimuth structure.Comment: 27 pages, 12 figure