  In a previous paper we suggested that, for a given p mode, the excitation
function is the same as the component of the solar background noise that has an
identical surface spherical harmonic projection (over the corresponding range
of temporal frequency). An important consequence of this surmise is that the
excitation of overtones of a given angular degree and azimuthal order will be
correlated in time. In this note, we introduce the basic principles and a
mathematical description of correlated mode excitation. We use simple,
illustrative examples, involving two modes. Our treatment suggests that in the
real observations, any signatures of the correlation would not appear as a
correlation of the output amplitudes of overtones, but rather as subtle
modifications to the power spectral density at frequencies between the central
frequencies of the overtones. These modifications give a contribution to the
observed peak asymmetries.
