arXiv subjects

Chun Yip Yau

Publications and source records attributed to Chun Yip Yau.

8 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Identification problem and quasi-maximum likelihood estimation for matrix-variate CP-factor models

Matrix-valued time series, arising in diverse fields such as economics, neuroscience, and recommender systems, have become increasingly prominent in modern data analysis. Among various modeling frameworks, the matrix-variate CP-factor model represents an important and widely applicable class for capturing low-rank structures in matrix time series. In this paper, we provide a unified treatment for the identification problem of CP factor models using both analytic and algebraic tools. In particular, we characterize the parameter space as the union of two subspaces, one identifiable and the other non-identifiable. We show that existing estimation methods only apply to an open proper subset of the identifiable subspace. In contrast, we propose a quasi-maximum likelihood estimation (QMLE) procedure for CP factor models, which allows consistent estimation on the whole identifiable subspace. Moreover, we show that the estimated loading matrices by QMLE achieve a faster convergence rate compared to existing approaches. A simulation study and a real application are conducted to demonstrate the finite-sample performance of the proposed method.

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arXiv2026

Inference for Multiple Change-points in Piecewise Locally Stationary Time Series

Change-point detection and locally stationary time series modeling are two major approaches for the analysis of non-stationary data. The former aims to identify stationary phases by detecting abrupt changes in the dynamics of a time series model, while the latter employs (locally) time-varying models to describe smooth changes in dependence structure of a time series. However, in some applications, abrupt and smooth changes can co-exist, and neither of the two approaches alone can model the data adequately. In this paper, we propose a novel likelihood-based procedure for the inference of multiple change-points in locally stationary time series. In contrast to traditional change-point analysis where an abrupt change occurs in a real-valued parameter, a change in locally stationary time series occurs in a parameter curve, and can be classified as a jump or a kink depending on whether the curve is discontinuous or not. We show that the proposed method can consistently estimate the number, locations, and the types of change-points. Two different asymptotic distributions corresponding respectively to jump and kink estimators are also established. Extensive simulation studies and a real data application to financial time series are provided.

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arXiv2024

Predicting Future Change-points in Time Series

Change-point detection and estimation procedures have been widely developed in the literature. However, commonly used approaches in change-point analysis have mainly been focusing on detecting change-points within an entire time series (off-line methods), or quickest detection of change-points in sequentially observed data (on-line methods). Both classes of methods are concerned with change-points that have already occurred. The arguably more important question of when future change-points may occur, remains largely unexplored. In this paper, we develop a novel statistical model that describes the mechanism of change-point occurrence. Specifically, the model assumes a latent process in the form of a random walk driven by non-negative innovations, and an observed process which behaves differently when the latent process belongs to different regimes. By construction, an occurrence of a change-point is equivalent to hitting a regime threshold by the latent process. Therefore, by predicting when the latent process will hit the next regime threshold, future change-points can be forecasted. The probabilistic properties of the model such as stationarity and ergodicity are established. A composite likelihood-based approach is developed for parameter estimation and model selection. Moreover, we construct the predictor and prediction interval for future change points based on the estimated model.

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arXiv2023

A Composite Likelihood-based Approach for Change-point Detection in Spatio-temporal Processes

This paper develops a unified and computationally efficient method for change-point estimation along the time dimension in a non-stationary spatio-temporal process. By modeling a non-stationary spatio-temporal process as a piecewise stationary spatio-temporal process, we consider simultaneous estimation of the number and locations of change-points, and model parameters in each segment. A composite likelihood-based criterion is developed for change-point and parameters estimation. Under the framework of increasing domain asymptotics, theoretical results including consistency and distribution of the estimators are derived under mild conditions. In contrast to classical results in fixed dimensional time series that the localization error of change-point estimator is $O_{p}(1)$, exact recovery of true change-points can be achieved in the spatio-temporal setting. More surprisingly, the consistency of change-point estimation can be achieved without any penalty term in the criterion function. In addition, we further establish consistency of the number and locations of the change-point estimator under the infill asymptotics framework where the time domain is increasing while the spatial sampling domain is fixed. A computationally efficient pruned dynamic programming algorithm is developed for the challenging criterion optimization problem. Extensive simulation studies and an application to U.S. precipitation data are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness and practicality of the proposed method.

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arXiv2021

Asymptotic Spectral Theory for Spatial Data

In this paper we study the asymptotic theory for spectral analysis of stationary random fields, including linear and nonlinear fields. Asymptotic properties of Fourier coefficients and periodograms, including limiting distributions of Fourier coefficients, and the uniform consistency of kernel spectral density estimators are obtained under various mild conditions on moments and dependence structures. The validity of the aforementioned asymptotic results for estimated spatial fields is also established.

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arXiv2021

Alternating Pruned Dynamic Programming for Multiple Epidemic Change-Point Estimation

In this paper, we study the problem of multiple change-point detection for a univariate sequence under the epidemic setting, where the behavior of the sequence alternates between a common normal state and different epidemic states. This is a non-trivial generalization of the classical (single) epidemic change-point testing problem. To explicitly incorporate the alternating structure of the problem, we propose a novel model selection based approach for simultaneous inference on both change-points and alternating states. Using the same spirit as profile likelihood, we develop a two-stage alternating pruned dynamic programming algorithm, which conducts efficient and exact optimization of the model selection criteria and has $O(n^2)$ as the worst case computational cost. As demonstrated by extensive numerical experiments, compared to classical general-purpose multiple change-point detection procedures, the proposed method improves accuracy for both change-point estimation and model parameter estimation. We further show promising applications of the proposed algorithm to multiple testing with locally clustered signals, and demonstrate its advantages over existing methods in large scale multiple testing, in DNA copy number variation detection, and in oceanographic study.

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arXiv2020

Functional Autoregressive Processes in Reproducing Kernel Hilbert Spaces

We study the estimation and prediction of functional autoregressive~(FAR) processes, a statistical tool for modeling functional time series data. Due to the infinite-dimensional nature of FAR processes, the existing literature addresses its inference via dimension reduction and theoretical results therein require the (unrealistic) assumption of fully observed functional time series. We propose an alternative inference framework based on Reproducing Kernel Hilbert Spaces~(RKHS). Specifically, a nuclear norm regularization method is proposed for estimating the transition operators of the FAR process directly from discrete samples of the functional time series. We derive a representer theorem for the FAR process, which enables infinite-dimensional inference without dimension reduction. Sharp theoretical guarantees are established under the (more realistic) assumption that we only have finite discrete samples of the FAR process. Extensive numerical experiments and a real data application of energy consumption prediction are further conducted to illustrate the promising performance of the proposed approach compared to the state-of-the-art methods in the literature.

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arXiv2017

Inference for Multiple Change-points in Linear and Non-linear Time Series Models

In this paper we develop a generalized likelihood ratio scan method (GLRSM) for multiple change-points inference in piecewise stationary time series, which estimates the number and positions of change-points and provides a confidence interval for each change-point. The computational complexity of using GLRSM for multiple change-points detection is as low as $O(n(\log n)^3)$ for a series of length $n$. Consistency of the estimated numbers and positions of the change-points is established. Extensive simulation studies are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed methodology under different scenarios.

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