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Put $c_t=\cos (2\pi t/S)$ and assume ${\sigma }^2>0$. ThenThus $Y$ generally has a periodic mean, and $Z$ generally has a periodic variance. The edge cases allowed by $S\in {\mathbb{N}}^{\ast }$ matter: $Y$ is stationary when $S=1$, because the mean is then constant, and $Z$ is stationary for $S=1$ or $S=2$. In the latter case multiplying iid centered Gaussian white noise by $(-1{)}^t$ leaves its iid distribution unchanged. For every $S\ge 3$, $c_0^2=1$ but $c_1^2<1$, so $Z$ is nonstationary. For $S>1$, $Y$ is nonstationary because $c_t$ is not constant.

Use the seasonal difference operator ${\Delta }_S=1-B^S$. Since $c_t=c_{t-S}$,This is a stationary moving-average model of iid Gaussian white noise. Its covariance is $2{\sigma }^2$ at lag $0$, $-{\sigma }^2$ at lags $\pm S$, and zero otherwise.

For the variance-modulated process the same operation givesIts variance is $2{\sigma }^2{c}_t^2$ and its covariance at lag $S$ is $-{\sigma }^2{c}_t^2$. Therefore it remains nonstationary for $S\ge 3$, and the operation doubles the marginal variance at nonzero seasons. Seasonal differencing does not remove periodic variance: it removes a periodic mean, but the periodic variance generally remains. Practical alternatives are a periodic model or seasonal variance standardization; at seasons with $c_t=0$ the observations are deterministically zero, so division by $c_t$ is not possible there. For the already stationary special cases $S=1,2$, filtering preserves stationarity.

A periodically correlated process with period $S$ has its mean and two-time covariance unchanged when both times are shifted by $S$. For $Z$, the mean is zero andHence $Z$ is a periodically correlated process. Its covariance period can be smaller than $S$: when $S$ is even, $c_{t+S/2}^2=c_t^2$, so $S/2$ is already a covariance period.

Seasonality is systematic repetition at a calendar period. It can appear in a deterministic mean, in a periodic variance, or in dependence across seasons. A seasonal difference operator removes a fixed periodic mean but seasonal differencing does not remove periodic variance. A periodic-looking path alone does not prove a nonstationary process.