Innovation process Created 2026-10-06 Updated 2026-10-14
An innovation measures the part of the current observation not predicted from past observations. The linear innovation process uses orthogonal projection onto the past linear span. A conditional expectation predictor can use nonlinear information; the two predictors agree for a Gaussian process.
Reflecting an inside-unit-circle zero across the unit circle produces an invertible moving-average model with the same spectral density of a stationary process, after rescaling the driving white noise variance. For real , . The transformed driving sequence is a linear innovation process; without Gaussianity it need not be strong white noise.
Put and define the autoregressive polynomial and moving-average polynomial by
For a minimal, coprime ARMA representation, the usual simultaneous causality and invertibility root criteria for an ARMA model are
The autoregressive condition makes a stable one-sided filter and gives the causal second-order stationary process. The moving-average condition makes its inverse a stable one-sided filter, so the white noise can be reconstructed from present and past observations. If the two polynomials have a common factor, first use common factor cancellation in an ARMA model; necessary-and-sufficient root statements apply to the reduced noise-driven representation. Stationarity here is second-order stationarity; weak white noise alone does not assert strict stationarity of all finite-dimensional laws.
For , write , so . Expanding gives the Wold representation
In particular , for , and for . The coefficients are square-summable, so this series converges in mean square. Causality and invertibility identify the driver with the linear innovation process, justifying the Wold terminology. For , powers with exponent zero equal one and the formula reduces to the finite moving average.
To obtain the covariance equations, subtract and take covariance with . Orthogonality of the white noise and the causal expansion imply
Thus the innovation coefficients of an ARMA(1,q) process give the entire triangular system in one formula:
At , use , since the autocovariance of a real stationary process is symmetric. The terms are consequently at zero, at , and the intervening partial sums as required.
For , put and . The equations become
Substitution of the second into the first, followed by the geometric recursion, yields the autocovariance of a causal ARMA(1,1) process:
This includes : only lags survive, as for an MA(1) process.
Here the innovation process consists of linear innovations, the linear one-step prediction errors: , where is the closed linear span of the past 's in . For Gaussian processes this is also the conditional expectation prediction error. For general non-Gaussian strong white noise these two notions can differ.
The given is not the linear innovation process. The moving-average factor has its zero at , inside the unit disk, and is noninvertible as a causal moving-average filter. The identity
is the moving-average root reflection that places this zero outside the unit disk. Thus the causal invertible representation has innovation variance , rather than the given variance .
For an explicit verification, define
The filter has constant squared modulus , so is weak white noise with variance . The new moving-average factor has root and is invertible, while its autoregressive factor is causal. Hence the past spans of and agree, and belongs to that past span. Orthogonality of to past therefore identifies it as the linear innovation process. The variance difference proves that it cannot be . If the original noise is Gaussian, the new linear innovations are independent Gaussian variables; without Gaussianity they need only be uncorrelated random variables.