Testing independence of functional variables by angle covariance

Abstract We propose a new nonparametric independence test for two functional random variables. The test is based on a new dependence metric, the so-called angle covariance, which fully characterizes the independence of the random variables and generalizes the projection covariance proposed for random vectors. The angle covariance has a number of desirable properties, including the equivalence of its zero value and the independence of the two functional variables, and it can be applied to any functional data without finite moment conditions. We construct a V -statistic estimator of the angle covariance, and show that it has a Gaussian chaos limiting distribution under the independence null hypothesis and a normal limiting distribution under the alternative hypothesis. The test based on the estimated angle covariance is consistent against all alternatives and easy to be implemented by the given random permutation method. Simulations show that the test based on the angle covariance outperforms other competing tests for functional data.