Research Scientist
Head of Mathematics Cluster
Head of Information and Inference
Machine Learning

Tel. +431 51581-2548
Email: guenther.koliander(at)oeaw.ac.at

Scientific IDs:
ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-4750-3305
Google Scholar: Günther Koliander

Academic Background

Günther Koliander received the Diploma degree in Technical Mathematics (with distinction) from TU Wien, Austria, in 2011 (Diploma thesis “Hilbert Spaces of Entire Functions in the Hardy Space Setting”). From 2011 to 2017 he was with the Institute of Telecommunications, TU Wien, Austria, where he finished his PhD (with distinction) in the WWTF project NOWIRE in April 2015 (Dissertation "Information-theoretic analysis of noncoherent block-fading channels and singular random variables"). He twice held visiting researcher positions at Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden and once at Georg August Universität Göttingen, Göttingen, Deutschland.

Since July 2017 he is part of the Acoustics Research Institute's cluster "Mathematics and Signal Processing in Acoustics", with a short leave for the University of Vienna, Faculty of Mathematics from July to December 2021.

Current Research

Günther Koliander is one of the co-principal investigators of the project "Digitization, Recognition and Automated Clustering of Watermarks in the Music Manuscripts of Franz Schubert" and works also in the project "Time-Frequency Analysis, Randomness and Sampling."

Current topics:

  • Information Theory
  • Machine Learning
  • Compressed Sensing
  • Point Processes
  • Time-frequency and Time-scale Analysis

Publications

  • Hyperuniformity and non-hyperuniformity of zeros of Gaussian Weyl-Heisenberg Functions. / Feldheim, Naomi; Haimi, Antti; Koliander, Günther et al.
    In: Probability Theory and Related Fields, 27.06.2026.

    We study zero sets of twisted stationary Gaussian random functions on the complex plane, i.e., Gaussian random functions that are stochastically invariant under the action of the Weyl-Heisenberg group. This model includes translation-invariant Gaussian entire functions (GEFs), and also many other non-analytic examples, in which case winding numbers around zeros can be either positive or negative. We investigate zero statistics both when zeros are weighted with their winding numbers (charged zero set) and when they are not (uncharged zero set). We show that the variance of the charged zero statistic always grows linearly with the radius of the observation disk (hyperuniformity). Importantly, this holds for functions with possibly non-zero means and without assuming additional symmetries such as radiality. With respect to uncharged zero statistics, we provide an example for which the variance grows with the area of the observation disk (non-hyperuniformity). This is used to show that, while the zeros of GEFs are hyperuniform, the set of their critical points fails to be so. Our work contributes to recent developments in statistical signal processing, where the time-frequency profile of a non-stationary signal embedded into noise is revealed by performing a statistical test on the zeros of its spectrogram (“silent points”). We show that empirical spectrogram zero counts enjoy moderate deviations from their ensemble averages over large observation windows (something that was previously known only for pure noise). In contrast, we also show that spectrogram maxima (“loud points”) fail to enjoy a similar property. This gives the first formal evidence for the statistical superiority of silent points over the competing feature of loud points, a fact that has been noted by practitioners. In the same vein, our second order asymptotics for spectrogram maxima show that certain heuristic proxy models used in signal processing are inaccurate at large scales.

  • Novel Approach to Inter-Onset-Interval Ratio Uncovers Music-Like Rhythmic Patterns in Budgerigar (Melopsittacus undulatus) Warble Song. / van der Aa, Jeroen; Koliander, Günther; Fitch, W. Tecumseh et al.
    In: Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, Vol. 2025, No. 1, 16.12.2025.
  • On Image Processing and Pattern Recognition for Thermograms of Watermarks in Manuscripts - A First Proof-of-Concept. / Hauser, D; Beckmann, M; Koliander, G et al.
    Proceedings of the International Conference on Document Analysis and Recognition. Athens, 2024.
  • Online Learning of Model Parameters and Object Classes in Extended Multiobject Tracking. / Bucco, T; Koliander, G; Kreidl, B et al.
    Proceedings of the 27th International Conference on Information Fusion. Venice, I, 2024.
  • Efficient computation of the zeros of the Bargmann transform under additive white noise. / Escudero, L; Feldheim, N; Koliander, G et al.
    In: Foundations of Computational Mathematics, Vol. 24, 10.02.2024, p. 279-312.
  • Rotated time-frequency lattices are sets of stable sampling for continuous wavelet systems. / Holighaus, N; Koliander, G.
    14th International Conference on Sampling Theory and Applications. Yale, 2023.
  • Lossy Compression of General Random Variables. / Riegler, E; Koliander, G; Bölcskei, H.
    In: Information and Inference, Vol. 12/3, 05.06.2023, p. 1759-1829.
  • Grid-Based Decimation for Wavelet Transforms With Stably Invertible Implementation. / Holighaus, N; Koliander, G; Hollomey, C et al.
    In: IEEE/ACM Transactions on Audio Speech and Language Processing, Vol. 31, 13.01.2023, p. 789-801.
  • Grid-like wavelet sampling for audio processing applications. / Hollomey, C; Holighaus, N; Koliander, G.
    Proceedings: A16, Numerical, Computational and Theoretical Acoustics, ICA 2022. Gyeongju, 2022. p. 208-214.
  • A Differential Entropy Estimator for Training Neural Networks. / Pichler, G; Colombo, P; Boudiaf, M et al.
    Proceedings of the 39 th International Conference on Machine Learning. Baltimore, 2022. p. 17691-17715 (Proceedings of Machine Learning Research (PMLR) 162).
  • Zeros of Gaussian Weyl-Heisenberg Functions and Hyperuniformity of Charge. / Haimi, A; Koliander, G; Romero, J.
    In: Journal of Statistical Physics, Vol. 187/3, 15.04.2022, p. Paper Nr. 22.
  • Fusion of Probability Density Functions. / Koliander, G; El-Laham, Y; Djurić, P et al.
    In: Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 110/4, 01.04.2022, p. 404-453.
  • Modelling the Utility of Group Testing for Public Health Surveillance. / Koliander, G; Pichler, G.
    In: Infectious Disease Modelling, Vol. 6, 20.08.2021, p. 1009-1024.
  • Non-iterative phaseless reconstruction from wavelet transform magnitude. / Holighaus, N; Koliander, G; uša, Pr et al.
    Proceedings of the DAFx19. 2019.
  • Lossless analog compression. / Alberti, G; Boelcskei, H; Lellis, De et al.
    In: IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, Vol. 65, 01.12.2019, p. 7480-7513.
  • Characterization of Analytic Wavelet Transforms and a New Phaseless Reconstruction Algorithm. / Holighaus, N; Koliander, G; uša, Pr et al.
    In: IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing, Vol. 67, 01.12.2019, p. 3894-3908.
  • Minimal achievable sufficient statistic learning. / Cvitkovic, M; Koliander, G.
    Proc. Mach. Learn. Res. (ICML 2019). Vol. 97 Long Beach, CA, USA, 2019. p. 1465-1474.
  • Filtering the continuous wavelet transform using hyperbolic triangulations. / Koliander, G; Abreu, L; Haimi, A et al.
    Proc. Int. Conf. Samp. Theory and Appl. (SampTA-19). Bordeaux, France, 2019.
  • Information Bottleneck on General Alphabets. / Pichler, G; Koliander, G.
    2018 IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory (ISIT). Vail, CO, 2018. p. 526-530.
  • Rate-Distortion Theory for General Sets and Measures. / Riegler, E; Koliander, G; Bölcskei, H.
    2018 IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory (ISIT). Vail, CO, 2018. p. 101-105.