Minimax Signal Detection Under Weak Noise Assumptions

Abstract: We consider minimax signal detection in the sequence model. Working with certain ellipsoids in the space of square-summable sequences of real numbers, with a ball of positive radius removed, we obtain upper and lower bounds for the minimax separation radius in the non-asymptotic framework, i.e., for a fixed value of the involved noise level. We use very weak assumptions on the noise (i.e., fourth moments are assumed to be uniformly bounded). In particular, we do not use any kind of Gaussianity or independence assumption on the noise. It is shown that the established minimax separation rates are not faster than the ones obtained in the classical sequence model (i.e., independent standard Gaussian noise) but, surprisingly, are of the same order as the minimax estimation rates in the classical setting. Under an additional condition on the noise, the classical minimax separation rates are also retrieved in benchmark well-posed and ill-posed inverse problems.