On the time-frequency detection of chirps (Q1283561)

The methods of signal analysis are wide spread and range from the techniques of classical Fourier analysis to various types of linear time-frequency transforms and nonlinear approaches. Chirp signals occur in geophysics, astrophysics, and biology. Moreover, they are applied in radar remote sensing and sonar imaging, nondestructive evaluation of materials, and seismic exploration. From the mathematical point of view, linear chirp signals arise in a natural way from the metaplectic representation acting on the two-fold covering of the time-frequency plane as an automorphism of the holographic transform [\textit{W. Schempp}, Harmonic analysis on the Heisenberg nilpotent Lie group, with applications to signal theory. Pitman Research Notes in Mathematics Series, Vol. 147, Longman, London (1986; Zbl 0632.43001)]. On the same metaplectic representational base lies the fact, that the d'Alembertian acting on the relativistic spacetime of the plane gravitational wave satisfies Huyghens' principle. Whereas the existence of gravitational waves was predicted by general relativity theory [\textit{E. Binz} and \textit{W. Schempp}, Entanglement, Parataxy, and Cosmology. Proc. Jean Lerau Conference Karlskrona, Sweden 1999, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht (to appear)], no direct experimental evidence has been obtained so far [\textit{B. F. Schutz}, Classical Quantum Gravity 6, 1761-1780 (1989); \textit{D. S. Stahyaprakash} and \textit{S. V. Dhurandhar}, Choice of filters for the detection of gravitational waves from coalescing binaries. Phys. Rev. D 44, 3819-3834 (1991); \textit{S. D. Mohanty} and \textit{S. V. Dhurandhar}, Hierarchical search strategies for the detection of gravitational waves from coalescing binaries, Phys. Rev. D 54, 7108-7128 (1996)]. The paper under review deals with the problem of detecting chirp signals in the time-frequency plane and proposing applications of chirps to the detection of gravitational waves together with an effective implementation by means of reassigned spectrograms.