Milan Palus
Institute of Computer Science,
Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic
Pod vodárenskou vezí 2,
182 07 Prague 8, Czech Republic
E-mail: mp@uivt.cas.cz
Dagmar Novotna
Institute of Atmospheric Physics,
Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic
Bocni II/1401,
141 31 Prague 4, Czech Republic
E-mail: nov@ufa.cas.cz
A property of nonlinear oscillators -- mutual dependence between their instantaneous amplitude and frequency is tested in the yearly and monthly records of the sunspot numbers using the histogram-adjusted isospectral surrogate data and the Barnes model as the ARMA surrogates. The instantaneous amplitudes and frequencies are obtained by means of the analytic signal approach using the discrete Hilbert transform. In several tests the amplitude-frequency correlation has been found significant on levels ranging from p<0.03 to p<0.07, which supports the hypothesis of a driven nonlinear oscillator as a mechanism underlying the sunspot cycle.