The development of an information criterion for Change-Point Analysis

Abstract: Change-point analysis is a flexible and computationally tractable tool for the analysis of times series data from systems that transition between discrete states and whose observables are corrupted by noise. The change-point algorithm is used to identify the time indices (change points) at which the system transitions between these discrete states. We present a unified information-based approach to testing for the existence of change points. This new approach reconciles two previously disparate approaches to Change-Point Analysis (frequentist and information-based) for testing transitions between states. The resulting method is statistically principled, parameter and prior free and widely applicable to a wide range of change-point problems.