The Physics of Noise

Preface

1 Cosmic noise

1.1 Radio waves from the sky

1.2 The noise of the cosmos

2 What is noise?

2.1 Deterministic and random signals

2.2 Statistical properties of noise

2.3 A broad classication of common types of noise

2.4 A few comments on the physicist's noise and the mathematician's noise

3 Mathematical models of noise

3.1 Fourier transforms

3.1.1 Integral representation of the Dirac's delta function

3.2 Energy carried by a signal

3.3 The power spectrum

3.4 The autocorrelation function and the Wiener-Kintchine theorem

3.5 The power spectrum of noise processes

3.5.1 The power spectrum of a point process

3.5.2 White noise

3.6 Brownian motion

3.6.1 Langevin's equation

3.6.2 Frequency-domain analysis of the Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process

3.7 Thermal noise

3.8 Shot noise

3.9 1=f noise

3.10 The pitfalls of power spectra

4 The science of Johnson noise

4.1 The Boltzmann constant

4.1.1 Noise thermometry

4.2 Noise temperature of a radio telescope

5 Final remarks

6 Further reading

Index