Abstract
Recent measurements on thin metal films suggest a pulse model of resistance fluctuations in which scale similarity and power law spectra are only approximate. We show that such a pulse model is consistent with stationary Gaussian resistance fluctuations. This is to be contrasted with the phenomenological behavior, of fluctuations near phase transitions and in turbulent fluids where the fluctuations are non-Gaussian, but exhibit scale similarity of deep physical origin. We then critically examine other tests of the Gaussian behavior of the fluctuating voltageV(t) across a resistor. These include the relaxation of the conditional mean 〈V(t)¦V(0)=V 0〉, and the spectrum ofV 2(t). We consider also the question of time reversal invariance. We further ask under what conditions 1/f noise can be measured through fluctuations of the Johnson noise power with no applied voltage. We emphasize that this possibility, suggested and observed by Voss and Clarke, requires thatV(t) contain a non-Gaussian component.
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Nelkin, M., Tremblay, A.M.S. Deviation of 1/f voltage fluctuations from scale-similar Gaussian behavior. J Stat Phys 25, 253–268 (1981). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01022186
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01022186