Smooth Matérn Gaussian Random Fields: Euler Characteristic, Expected Number and Height Distribution of Critical Points

Abstract: This paper studies Gaussian random fields with Mat\'ern covariance functions with smooth parameter $\nu>2$. Two cases of parameter spaces, the Euclidean space and $N$-dimensional sphere, are considered. For such smooth Gaussian fields, we have derived the explicit formulae for the expected Euler characteristic of the excursion set, the expected number and height distribution of critical points. The results are valuable for approximating the excursion probability in family-wise error control and for computing p-values in peak inference.