The family of Matérn kernels are often used in spatial statistics, function approximation and Gaussian process methods in machine learning. One reason for their popularity is the presence of a smoothness parameter that controls, for example, optimal error bounds for kriging and posterior contraction rates in Gaussian process regression. On closed Riemannian manifolds, we show that the smoothness parameter can be consistently estimated from the maximizer(s) of the Gaussian likelihood when the underlying data are from point evaluations of a Gaussian process and, perhaps surprisingly, even when the data comprise evaluations of a non-Gaussian process. The points at which the process is observed need not have any particular spatial structure beyond quasi-uniformity. Our methods are based on results from approximation theory for the Sobolev scale of Hilbert spaces. Moreover, we generalize a well-known equivalence of measures phenomenon related to Matérn kernels to the non-Gaussian case by using Kakutani's theorem.
We present a new technique, based on semivariogram methodology, for obtaining point estimates for use in prior modeling for solving Bayesian inverse problems. This method requires a connection between Gaussian processes with covariance operators defined by the Matérn covariance function and Gaussian processes with precision (inverse-covariance) operators defined by the Green's functions of a class of elliptic stochastic partial differential equations (SPDEs). We present a detailed mathematical description of this connection. We will show that there is an equivalence between these two Gaussian …
This work develops non-asymptotic theory for estimation of the long-run variance matrix and its inverse, the so-called precision matrix, for high-dimensional time series under general assumptions on the dependence structure including long-range dependence. The estimation involves shrinkage techniques which are thresholding and penalizing versions of the classical multivariate local Whittle estimator. The results ensure consistent estimation in a double asymptotic regime where the number of component time series is allowed to grow with the sample size as long as the true model parameters are sp…
On the parametric and semiparametric Fisher information matrix for non-zero mean stationary spherical invariant random processes
Samovar laboratory, Telecom SudParis, Institut Polytechnique de Paris（萨莫瓦尔实验室，电信巴黎理工学院，巴黎理工学院）；Taif University, College of Engineering, Dept. of Electrical Engineering（塔伊夫大学，工程学院，电气工程系）
In time series analysis there is an apparent dichotomy between time and frequency domain methods. The aim of this paper is to draw connections between frequency and time domain methods. Our focus will be on reconciling the Gaussian likelihood and the Whittle likelihood. We derive an exact, interpretable, bound between the Gaussian and Whittle likelihood of a second order stationary time series. The derivation is based on obtaining the transformation which is biorthogonal to the discrete Fourier transform of the time series. Such a transformation yields a new decomposition for the inverse of a …
In this paper, we consider the Whittle estimator for the parameters of a stationary solution of a continuous-time linear state space model sampled at low frequencies. In our context the driving process is a Lévy process which allows flexible margins of the underlying model. The Lévy process is supposed to have finite second moments. It is well known that then the class of stationary solutions of linear state space models and the class of multivariate CARMA processes coincides. We prove that the Whittle estimator, which is based on the periodogram, is strongly consistent and asymptotically norm…
Multivariate time series with long-dependence are observed in many applications such as finance , geophysics or neuroscience. Many packages provide estimation tools for univariate settings but few are addressing the problem of long-dependence estimation for multivariate settings. The package multiwave is providing efficient estimation procedures for multivariate time series. Two semi-parametric estimation methods of the long-memory exponents and long-run covariance matrix of time series are implemented. The first one is the Fourier-based estimation proposed by [18] and the second one is a wave…
The Whittle likelihood is a widely used and computationally efficient pseudo-likelihood. However, it is known to produce biased parameter estimates for large classes of models. We propose a method for de-biasing Whittle estimates for second-order stationary stochastic processes. The de-biased Whittle likelihood can be computed in the same $\mathcal{O}(n\log n)$ operations as the standard approach. We demonstrate the superior performance of the method in simulation studies and in application to a large-scale oceanographic dataset, where in both cases the de-biased approach reduces bias by up to…
Maximum-likelihood estimation of the Matérn covariance structure of isotropic spatial random fields on finite, sampled grids
Princeton University（普林斯顿大学）；Queen Mary University of London（伦敦玛丽女王大学）；Wesleyan University（卫斯理安大学）；Johns Hopkins University（约翰斯·霍普金斯大学）；Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne（洛桑联邦理工学院）
This paper proposes feasible asymptotically efficient estimators for a certain class of Gaussian noises with self-similar and stationary properties, which includes the fractional Gaussian noise, under high frequency observations. In this setting, the optimal rate of estimation depends on whether either the Hurst or diffusion parameters is known or not. This is due to the singularity of the asymptotic Fisher information matrix for simultaneous estimation of the above two parameters. One of our key ideas is to extend the Whittle estimation method to the situation of high frequency observations. …
We study minimax density estimation on the product space $\mathbb{R}^{d_1}\times\mathbb{R}^{d_2}$. We consider $L^p$-risk for probability density functions defined over regularity spaces that allow for different level of smoothness in each of the variables. Precisely, we study probabilities on Sobolev spaces with dominating mixed-smoothness. We provide the rate of convergence that is optimal even for the classical Sobolev spaces.
