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The paper concerns the study of the Rice statistical distribution’s peculiarities which cause the possibility of its efficient application in solving the tasks of high precision phase measuring in optics. The strict mathematical proof of the Rician distribution’s stable character is provided in the example of the differential signal consideration, namely: it has been proved that the sum or the difference of two Rician signals also obey the Rice distribution. Besides, the formulas have been obtained for the parameters of the resulting summand or differential signal’s Rice distribution. Based upon the proved stable character of the Rice distribution a new original technique of the high precision measuring of the two quasi-harmonic signals’ phase shift has been elaborated in the paper. This technique is grounded in the statistical analysis of the measured sampled data for the amplitudes of the both signals and for the amplitude of the third signal which is equal to the difference of the two signals to be compared in phase. The sought-for phase shift of two quasi-harmonic signals is being calculated from the geometrical considerations as an angle of a triangle which sides are equal to the three indicated signals’ amplitude values having been reconstructed against the noise background. Thereby, the proposed technique of measuring the phase shift using the differential signal analysis, is based upon the amplitude measurements only, what significantly decreases the demands to the equipment and simplifies the technique implementation in practice. The paper provides both the strict mathematical substantiation of a new phase shift measuring technique and the results of its numerical testing. The elaborated method of high precision phase measurements may be efficiently applied for solving a wide circle of tasks in various areas of science and technology, in particular — at distance measuring, in communication systems, in navigation, etc.

The paper presents the results of the fundamental research directed on the theoretical study and computer simulation of peculiarities of the quasi-harmonic signal’s phase statistical distribution. The quasi-harmonic signal is known to be formed as a result of the Gaussian noise impact on the initially harmonic signal. By means of the mathematical analysis the formulas have been obtained in explicit form for the principle characteristics of this distribution, namely: for the cumulative distribution function, the probability density function, the likelihood function. As a result of the conducted computer simulation the dependencies of these functions on the phase distribution parameters have been analyzed. The paper elaborates the methods of estimating the phase distribution parameters which contain the information about the initial, undistorted signal. It has been substantiated that the task of estimating the initial value of the phase of quasi-harmonic signal can be efficiently solved by averaging the results of the sampled measurements. As for solving the task of estimating the second parameter of the phase distribution, namely — the parameter, determining the signal level respectively the noise level — a maximum likelihood technique is proposed to be applied. The graphical illustrations are presented that have been obtained by means of the computer simulation of the principle characteristics of the phase distribution under the study. The existence and uniqueness of the likelihood function’s maximum allow substantiating the possibility and the efficiency of solving the task of estimating signal’s level relative to noise level by means of the maximum likelihood technique. The elaborated method of estimating the un-noised signal’s level relative to noise, i. e. the parameter characterizing the signal’s intensity on the basis of measurements of the signal’s phase is an original and principally new technique which opens perspectives of usage of the phase measurements as a tool of the stochastic data analysis. The presented investigation is meaningful for solving the task of determining the phase and the signal’s level by means of the statistical processing of the sampled phase measurements. The proposed methods of the estimation of the phase distribution’s parameters can be used at solving various scientific and technological tasks, in particular, in such areas as radio-physics, optics, radiolocation, radio-navigation, metrology.