We introduce a new method for high-dimensional, online changepoint detection in settings where a p-variate Gaussian data stream may undergo a change in mean. The procedure works by performing likelihood ratio tests against simple alternatives of different scales in each coordinate, and then aggregating test statistics across scales and coordinates.
The algorithm is online in the sense that its worst-case computational complexity per new observation, namely O(p2log(ep)), is independent of the number of previous observations; in practice, it may even be significantly faster than this. We prove that the patience, or average run length under the null, of our procedure is at least at the desired nominal level, and provide guarantees on its response delay under the alternative that depend on the sparsity of the vector of mean change. Simulations confirm the practical effectiveness of our proposal.[-]

The maximum score statistic is used to detect and estimate changes in the level, slope, or other local feature of a sequance of observations, and to segment the sequence xhen there appear to be multiple changes. Control of false positive errors when observations are auto-correlated is achieved by using a first order autoregressive model. True changes in level or slope can lead to badly biased estimates of the autoregressive parameter and variance, which can result in a loss of power. Modifications of the natural estimators to deal with this difficulty are partially successful. Applications to temperature time series, atmospheric CO2 levels, COVID-19 incidence, excess deaths, copy number variations, and weather extremes illustrate the general theory.
This is joint research with Xiao Fang.[-]