True that the models depend on the noise statistics to be iid, that is ergodic. That's the first assumption, and, while making the math tractable, is the worst assumption.
Don

On 2017-11-28 01:52, Mattia Rizzi wrote:
Hi

This is true. But then the Fourier transformation integrates time from
minus infinity to plus infinity. Which isn't exactly realistic either.

That's the theory. I am not arguing that it's realistic.

Ergodicity breaks because the noise process is not stationary.

I know but see the following.

Well, any measurement is an estimate.

It's not so simple. If you don't assume ergodicity, your spectrum analyzer
does not work, because:
1) The spectrum analyzer takes several snapshots of your realization to
estimate the PSD. If it's not stationary, the estimate does not converge. 2) It's just a single realization, therefore also a flat signal can be a realization of 1/f flicker noise. Your measurement has *zero* statistical
significance.



2017-11-27 23:50 GMT+01:00 Attila Kinali <att...@kinali.ch>:

Hoi Mattia,

On Mon, 27 Nov 2017 23:04:56 +0100
Mattia Rizzi <mattia.ri...@gmail.com> wrote:

> >To make the point a bit more clear. The above means that noise with
> > a PSD of the form 1/f^a for a>=1 (ie flicker phase, white frequency
> > and flicker frequency noise), the noise (aka random variable) is:
> > 1) Not independently distributed
> > 2) Not stationary
> > 3) Not ergodic
>
> I think you got too much in theory. If you follow striclty the statistics
> theory, you get nowhere.
> You can't even talk about 1/f PSD, because Fourier doesn't converge over
> infinite power signals.

This is true. But then the Fourier transformation integrates time from
minus infinity to plus infinity. Which isn't exactly realistic either.
The power in 1/f noise is actually limited by the age of the universe.
And quite strictly so. The power you have in 1/f is the same for every
decade in frequency (or time) you go. The age of the universe is about
1e10 years, that's roughly 3e17 seconds, ie 17 decades of possible noise. If we assume something like a 1k carbon resistor you get something around of 1e-17W/decade of noise power (guestimate, not an exact calculation). That means that resistor, had it been around ever since the universe was
created, then it would have converted 17*1e-17 = 2e-16W of heat into
electrical energy, on average, over the whole liftime of the universe.
That's not much :-)

> In fact, you are not allowed to take a realization, make several fft and
> claim that that's the PSD of the process. But that's what the spectrum
> analyzer does, because it's not a multiverse instrument.

Well, any measurement is an estimate.

> Every experimentalist suppose ergodicity on this kind of noise, otherwise
> you get nowhere.

Err.. no. Even if you assume that the spectrum tops off at some very
low frequency and does not increase anymore, ie that there is a finite
limit to noise power, even then ergodicity is not given.
Ergodicity breaks because the noise process is not stationary.
And assuming so for any kind of 1/f noise would be wrong.


                        Attila Kinali
--
<JaberWorky>    The bad part of Zurich is where the degenerates
                throw DARK chocolate at you.
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