On detection of sinusoids from periodograms

The problem of detection and estimation of a single sinusoid in Gaussian noise is discussed. Two methods are examined. The first is based on a single periodogram, whereas the second is based on a smoothed periodogram obtained by segmenting the data into overlapping subintervals and averaging their power spectrum. It is concluded that smoothed and unsmoothed periodograms are comparable vehicles for the detection and frequency estimation of a single sinusoid in Gaussian additive noise.<>