1. Background to decision theory

General decision theory, or the mathematical theory of rational choice, goes far beyond the scope of this presentation. This theory has applications in almost every branch of economic and technical activity. General decision theory has two main themes: the methodology of decision-making in uncertain situations, and the resolution of conflicting objectives. Our presentation will focus on the first theme (managing uncertainty) in the most orthodox (probabilistic) way. The theme of conflicting objectives (multi-criteria decisions) is also very important (economic equilibria, game theory, operations research...) but will not be addressed here at all.

Even within the limited framework of statistical decision theory, we will only deal with those points that are most directly related to the description of antenna processing. For example, we will not discuss the "philosophical"...