NONPARAMETRIC-ESTIMATION OF GAMMA-RAY BURST INTENSITIES USING HAAR WAVELETS

In this article, I present a method for the nonparametric (model-free) estimation of intensity profiles underlying gamma-ray bursts. The alg orithm, called TIPSH, is based on applying specially calibrated thresh olds to the Haar wavelet coefficients of binned counts gathered from s uch bursts. Because wavelets are well-localized with respect to both t ime and scale, they are an ideal tool for working with the often sharp , abrupt nature of gamma-ray burst signals. When applied to an idealiz ed signal in a small simulation study and a selection of actual gamma- ray bursts, the TIPSH algorithm was found to be well capable of simult aneously estimating the smooth, uniform background and the pulse-like structure of gamma-ray burst signals.