Summary
The structure of a stationary Gaussian process near a local maximum with a prescribed heightu has been explored in several papers by the present author, see [5]–[7], which include results for moderateu as well as foru→±∞. In this paper we generalize these results to a homogeneous Gaussian field {ξ(t) t ∈ R n}, with mean zero and the covariance functionr(t). The local structure of a Gaussian field near a high maximum has also been studied by Nosko, [8], [9], who obtains results of a slightly different type.
In Section 1 it is shown that if ξ has a local maximum with heightu at0 then ξ(t) can be expressed as
WhereA(t) andb(t) are certain functions, θu is a random vector, and Δ(t) is a non-homogeneous Gaussian field. Actually ξu(t) is the old process ξ(t) conditioned in the horizontal window sense to have a local maximum with heightu fort=0; see [4] for terminology.
In Section 2 we examine the process ξu(t) asu→−∞, and show that, after suitable normalizations, it tends to a fourth degree polynomial int 1…,t n with random coefficients. This result is quite analogous with the one-dimensional case.
In Section 3 we study the locations of the local minima of ξu(t) asu → ∞. In the non-isotropic caser(t) may have a local minimum at some pointt 0. Then it is shown in 3.2 that ξu(t) will have a local minimum at some point τu neart 0, and that τu-t 0 after a normalization is asymptoticallyn-variate normal asu→∞. This is in accordance with the one-dimensional case.
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This research was supported in part by the Office of Naval Research under Contract N00014-67-A-0002.
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Lindgren, G. Local maxima of Gaussian fields. Ark. Mat. 10, 195–218 (1972). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02384809
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02384809