Statistical Approximation of Fourier Transform-IR Spectroscopy Data for Zinc White Pigment from Twentieth-Century Russian Paintings

We present a statistical model for approximation of experimental Fourier transform-IR spectroscopy (FTIR) data for paint samples from paintings of different ages. The model utilizes random variations in some parameters (initial ageing rate, degree of change in ageing rate and time at which the change occurs). We determine the parameters characterizing variation in the paint composition and the storage conditions for the paintings. The numerical calculation is qualitatively consistent with the experimental data. In the proposed model, changes in the initial composition of the paint and the storage conditions make about the same contribution to the experimentally observed scatter in the data points.