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Application of Wavelets to the Study of Political History

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Abbreviations

Admissibility condition :

The condition that a function ψL 2(ℝ) must satisfy to be considered as a wavelet; this condition is \( {\displaystyle {\int}_{-\infty}^{\infty}\frac{{\left|\widehat{\psi}\left(\omega \right)\right|}^2}{\left|\omega \right|}d\omega }<\infty \), where \( \widehat{\psi}\left(\omega \right) \) is the Fourier transform of ψ; for functions with sufficiently fast decay, this condition is equivalent to \( {\displaystyle {\int}_{-\infty}^{\infty}\psi (t)dt}=0 \).

Analytic wavelet :

A wavelet whose Fourier transform is zero for negative frequencies.

Cone of influence (COI) :

The region in the time-frequency plane where the computation of the CWT is affected by boundary effects.

Continuous wavelet transform (CWT) :

(of a function x with respect to a wavelet ψ) The function defined by \( {W}_x\left(\tau, s\right)=\frac{1}{\sqrt{\left|s\right|}}{\displaystyle {\int}_{-\infty}^{\infty }x(t)\overline{\psi}\left(\frac{t-\tau }{s}\right)dt} \).

Fourier transform :

(of a function x) The function defined by \( \widehat{x}\left(\omega \right)={\displaystyle {\int}_{-\infty}^{\infty }x(t){e}^{-i\omega t}dt} \).

L 2(ℝ) space :

The space of square integrable functions, i.e., the set of functions x defined on the real line and such that \( {\displaystyle {\int}_{-\infty}^{\infty }{\left|x(t)\right|}^2dt}<\infty \).

Morlet wavelets :

A one-parameter family of functions defined by \( {\psi}_{\omega_0}(t)={\pi}^{-1/4}{e}^{i{\omega}_0t}{e}^{-\frac{t^2}{2}} \).

Normalized wavelet power spectrum :

The function given by |W x (τ, s)|2/s, where |W x (τ, s)|2 is the wavelet power spectrum.

Scalogram :

The same as wavelet power spectrum.

Short-time Fourier transform :

(of a function x with respect to a given window g) The function by \( {\mathrm{\mathcal{F}}}_{x;g}\left(\tau, \omega \right)={\displaystyle {\int}_{-\infty}^{\infty }x(t)g\left(t-\tau \right){e}^{-i\omega t}dt} \).

Time-center (frequency-center) of a window g :

The mean of the probability density function given by \( \frac{{\left|g(t)\right|}^2}{{\left\Vert g\right\Vert}^2}\left(\frac{{\left|\widehat{g}\left(\omega \right)\right|}^2}{{\left\Vert \widehat{g}\right\Vert}^2}\right) \).

Time-frequency analysis :

The study of a function in both the time and frequency domains simultaneously.

Time-radius (frequency-radius) of a window g :

The standard deviation of the probability density function given by \( \frac{{\left|g(t)\right|}^2}{{\left\Vert g\right\Vert}^2}\left(\frac{{\left|\widehat{g}\left(\omega \right)\right|}^2}{{\left\Vert \widehat{g}\right\Vert}^2}\right) \).

Wavelet :

A L 2(ℝ) function satisfying the admissibility condition; in practice, a function with zero mean and well localized in time.

Wavelet daughters :

Functions ψ τ,s obtained form a (mother) wavelet ψ by scaling and translation: \( {\psi}_{\tau, s}(t)=\frac{1}{\sqrt{\left|s\right|}}\psi \left(\frac{t-\tau }{s}\right) \).

Wavelet power spectrum :

The squared of the modulus of the continuous wavelet transform, i.e., the function given by (WPS) x (τ, s) = |W x (τ, s)|2.

Wavelet ridges :

The set of local maxima of the normalized wavelet power spectrum |W x (τ, s)|2/s for fixed τ and varying s.

Window function :

A window in time is a function gL 2(ℝ) such that tg(t) ∈ L 2(ℝ); a window in frequency is a function gL 2(ℝ) such that \( \omega \widehat{g}\left(\omega \right)\in {L}^2\left(\mathtt{\mathbb{R}}\right) \); a function is a window if it is simultaneously a window in time and a window in frequency.

Windowed Fourier transform :

The same as short-time Fourier transform.

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Aguiar-Conraria, L., Magalhães, P.C., Soares, M.J. (2015). Application of Wavelets to the Study of Political History. In: Meyers, R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Complexity and Systems Science. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27737-5_637-1

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