Canonical identifiability of Gaussian ARMA models

Normalize the autoregressive and moving-average polynomials to have constant coefficient one, cancel common factors, and require all their zeros to lie outside the closed unit disk. With positive innovation variance these conditions give a causal, invertible, minimal Gaussian process representation. To prove identifiability, compare two such models with the same time-series spectral density. The ratio of their scaled rational transfer functions and its reciprocal are analytic on a neighbourhood of the closed unit disk and have modulus one on its boundary. The maximum modulus principle makes the ratio constant; its positive value at zero forces equality of the innovation variances and equality of the rational functions. Coprimality and the constant-coefficient normalization then force equality of both polynomials. Without the root restrictions, reciprocal root reflection of an ARMA representation and a rescaling of the innovation variance can preserve the spectrum, so the unrestricted parameters are not identifiable.