Fluctuations of 1/f Noise and the Low-Frequency Cutoff Paradox

Recent experiments on blinking quantum dots, weak turbulence in liquid crystals, and nanoelectrodes reveal the fundamental connection between 1/f noise and power law intermittency. The nonstationarity of the process implies that the power spectrum is random-a manifestation of weak ergodicity breaking. Here, we obtain the universal distribution of the power spectrum, which can be used to identify intermittency as the source of the noise. We solve in this case an outstanding paradox on the non-integrability of 1/f noise and the violation of Parseval's theorem. We explain why there is no physical low-frequency cutoff and therefore why it cannot be found in experiments. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.110.140603