Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2013 / iii / Paper 29 / 1

A causal time-series representation uses only the present and past driving white noise. Thus the coefficient condition isThe series must have its stated convergence meaning. For centered white noise of positive finite variance, ${\sum }_{r\ge 0}|a_r{|}^2<\infty$ is sufficient and necessary for mean-square convergence. In the usual stable-filter convention one imposes the stronger ${\sum }_{r\ge 0}|a_r|<\infty$. A bilateral stationary linear process need not be causal: terms with $r<0$ involve future driving values.

An invertible time-series representation recovers the driving white noise from current and past observations. In the inverse series the support condition is thereforeAgain the series must converge. Stable invertibility uses ${\sum }_{r\ge 0}|b_r|<\infty$, which ensures mean-square convergence when $X_t$ has finite variance. Merely writing a bilateral inverse is not invertibility in this one-sided sense: it may require future observations. For a general correlated input $X$, square summability of $b_r$ alone is not the same sufficient condition as it is for a white noise input.

For an autoregressive moving-average model, the driving-to-output transfer function is $A(z)=\theta (z)/\varphi (z)$, and the inverse transfer function is $A(z{)}^{-1}=\varphi (z)/\theta (z)$. The causality and invertibility root criteria for an ARMA model require these respective rational functions to have power series about zero converging on a disk larger than the unit disk. If the two polynomials have no common factor, the conditions becomeIndeed, outside-disk roots leave a radius of convergence greater than one, so the coefficients decay geometrically and are absolutely summable. Conversely an uncancelled pole inside or on the unit disk prevents the required stable power series. If factors are common, apply the criterion after cancellation, to the noise-driven solution rather than additional homogeneous components. The backshift operator translates these power series into the desired one-sided filters.

The original representation has $\varphi (z)=1-2z$ and $\theta (z)=1+2z$, with roots $1/2$ and $-1/2$. There is no cancellation. Hence it is neither causal nor invertible relative to its specified driving noise. Stationarity is nevertheless possible through a two-sided solution: expanding the autoregressive inverse in negative powers givesThis is an anticausal time series representation with square-summable coefficients.

To establish the alternative representation on the same process, defineThe inverse of $1+\frac{1}{2}B$ is a stable one-sided filter. For $|z|=1$, the identities $|1+2z{|}^2=4|1+z/2{|}^2$ and $|1-2z{|}^2=4|1-z/2{|}^2$ giveThe time-series spectral density of $X$ is ${\sigma }^2|1+2e^{-i\omega }{|}^2/(2\pi |1-2e^{-i\omega }{|}^2)$; therefore the defined $\eta$ has constant time-series spectral density ${\sigma }^2/(2\pi )$. Its mean is zero, its variance is ${\sigma }^2$, and all its nonzero-lag autocovariances vanish. It is thus weak white noise. Its definition directly givesThis root reflection of an ARMA representation has roots $2,-2$, so is causal and invertible. A constant spectrum proves whiteness, not independence of non-Gaussian coordinates; no Gaussian assumption is needed for the required white noise representation.

For best linear prediction from an infinite past, let ${\mathcal{H}}_0$ be the closed linear span of $X_t$ with $t\le 0$. The causal representation expresses every such $X_t$ in present and past $\eta$ values, while invertibility puts every ${\eta }_t$ with $t\le 0$ in ${\mathcal{H}}_0$. In particular ${\eta }_1$ is orthogonal to ${\mathcal{H}}_0$. The representation at time one then gives the orthogonal projectionConsequently the best linear predictor and its error variance areOrthogonality proves optimality among linear predictors in the closed past span, without asserting that the predictor must be the conditional mean for a non-Gaussian process.