Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2012 / iii / Paper 38 / 1 / i

Use the one-sided convention: integrating the one-sided spectral density over $[0,\pi ]$ gives the variance. A standard sufficient hypothesis is absolute summability of the autocovariance sequence:For a real weakly stationary process, extend the sequence by ${\gamma }_{-k}={\gamma }_k$. The Fourier pair isAbsolute summability makes the series uniformly convergent and continuous; cosine orthogonality gives the inverse relation. Nonnegativity follows from the spectral measure of a stationary time series, or from the nonnegative Fejér approximations obtained by taking variances of finite Fourier sums.

For precision, absolute summability is sufficient, not necessary. The exact general condition is that the spectral measure be absolutely continuous with respect to Lebesgue measure. For example, a density constant on $[0,\pi /2]$ and zero elsewhere has ${\gamma }_k$ proportional to $\sin (k\pi /2)/k$, which is not absolutely summable. Thus the displayed absolutely convergent Fourier formula answers the usual covariance-summability version; an arbitrary density need only have the integral inverse relation and Fejér-mean Fourier recovery in $L^1$.