Convex Optimization approach to signals with fast varying instantaneous frequency

Motivated by the limitation of analyzing oscillatory signals composed of multiple components with fast-varying instantaneous frequency, we approach the time-frequency analysis problem by optimization. Based on the proposed adaptive harmonic model, the time-frequency representation of a signal is obtained by directly minimizing a functional, which involves few properties an “ideal time-frequency representation” should satisfy, for example, the signal reconstruction and concentrative time-frequency representation. FISTA (Fast Iterative Shrinkage-Thresholding Algorithm) is applied to achieve an efficient numerical approximation of the functional. We coin the algorithm as Time-frequency bY COnvex OptimizatioN (Tycoon). The numerical results confirm the potential of the Tycoon algorithm.