Linear Response and Optimal Fingerprinting for Nonautonomous Systems

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Author: Lucarini, Valerio
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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author Lucarini, Valerio
author_facet Lucarini, Valerio
contents We provide a link between response theory, pullback measures, and optimal fingerprinting method that paves the way for a) predicting the impact of acting forcings on time-dependent systems and b) attributing observed anomalies to acting forcings when the reference state is not time-independent. We derive formulas for linear response theory for time-dependent Markov chains and diffusion processes. We discuss existence, uniqueness, and differentiability of the equivariant measure under general (not necessarily slow or periodic) perturbations of the transition kernels. Our results allow for extending the theory of optimal fingerprinting for detection and attribution of climate change (or change in any complex system) when the background state is time-dependent amd when the optimal solution is sought for multiple time slices at the same time. We provide numerical support for the findings by applying our theory to a modified version of the Ghil-Sellers energy balance model. We verify the precision of response theory - even in a coarse-grained setting - in predicting the impact of increasing CO$_2$ concentration on the temperature field. Additionally, we show that the optimal fingerprinting method developed here is capable to attribute the climate change signal to multiple acting forcings across a vast time horizon.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2602_08022
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Linear Response and Optimal Fingerprinting for Nonautonomous Systems
Lucarini, Valerio
Statistical Mechanics
Chaotic Dynamics
Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics
Data Analysis, Statistics and Probability
We provide a link between response theory, pullback measures, and optimal fingerprinting method that paves the way for a) predicting the impact of acting forcings on time-dependent systems and b) attributing observed anomalies to acting forcings when the reference state is not time-independent. We derive formulas for linear response theory for time-dependent Markov chains and diffusion processes. We discuss existence, uniqueness, and differentiability of the equivariant measure under general (not necessarily slow or periodic) perturbations of the transition kernels. Our results allow for extending the theory of optimal fingerprinting for detection and attribution of climate change (or change in any complex system) when the background state is time-dependent amd when the optimal solution is sought for multiple time slices at the same time. We provide numerical support for the findings by applying our theory to a modified version of the Ghil-Sellers energy balance model. We verify the precision of response theory - even in a coarse-grained setting - in predicting the impact of increasing CO$_2$ concentration on the temperature field. Additionally, we show that the optimal fingerprinting method developed here is capable to attribute the climate change signal to multiple acting forcings across a vast time horizon.
title Linear Response and Optimal Fingerprinting for Nonautonomous Systems
topic Statistical Mechanics
Chaotic Dynamics
Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics
Data Analysis, Statistics and Probability
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.08022