Statistical properties of the instantaneous frequency for a noisy signal

In this paper a comprehensive study of the statistical properties of the instantaneous frequency is presented. A rather crude estimate is given in the both situation where the signal to noise ratio tends respectively towards zero or infinity. For an intermediate state a more refined and exact computation, which recovers the asymptotic situations, has been performed. Two main results must be emphasized; the first deals with the bias of the instantaneous frequency and the second with the good immunity of this frequency against the noise.