Latent-space metrics for Complex-Valued VAE out-of-distribution detection under radar clutter

We therefore pursue a data-driven alternative based on complex-valued V AEs and latent-space OOD scores. In recent years, data-driven approaches have emerged to alleviate the need for precise clutter modeling. Among them, V AEs [4] have demonstrated promising capabilities for anomaly and OOD detection in diverse applications, including radar detection [5], speech enhancement [6], medical imaging [7], industrial monitoring [8], and acoustic signal analysis [9]. These models learn a latent representation of the training data and use reconstruction or probabilistic criteria to detect deviations. Despite their effectiveness, most V AE-based detectors operate in the real domain and often treat complex-valued radar data by separating real and imaginary components into distinct channels. Recent advances in Complex-V alued Neural Networks (CVNNs) have shown the benefits of directly modeling complex-valued signals [10, 11].