Two-dimensional Kac-Rice formula. Application to shot noise processes excursions

Abstract: Given a deterministic function f:R^2->R atisfying suitable assump- tions, we show that for h smooth with compact support, the integral of the Euler characteristic of the excursion set of f above some level u against a test function h corresponds to the Lebesgue integral on R^2 of a bounded quantity depending on grad(f)(x),h(f(x)),h'(f(x)) and \partial_{ii}f(x),i = 1,2. This formula can be seen as a 2-dimensional analogue of Kac-Rice formula. It yields in particular that the left hand member is continuous in the argument f, for an appropriate norm on the space of C2 functions. If f is a random field, the expectation can be passed under integrals in this identity under minimal requirements, not involving any density assumptions on the marginals of f or his derivatives. We apply these results to give a weak expression of the mean Euler characteristic of a shot noise process, and the finiteness of its moments.