A weakly stationary process has finite second moments, a mean independent of , and a covariance depending only on the separation of the observations. Its autocovariance function and autocorrelation function are
where the autocorrelation requires .
Write the autoregressive polynomial as , so the autoregressive model is , with the backshift operator. It is important to distinguish a weakly stationary process from a causal time series: weak stationarity alone does not require to depend only on present and past white noise.
For a two-sided weakly stationary process, the two-sided stationary inverse of an autoregressive polynomial exists and is unique if has no root on the unit circle. To find the excluded parameters, set . The imaginary part of gives
The case is harmless. The possible frequencies are . Since , and , the exceptional parameters are and . Thus, with nondegenerate white noise, the literal two-sided answer is
For completeness, away from those values has an absolutely summable Laurent series on an annulus containing the unit circle. Its bilateral coefficients define an -convergent linear filter of a stationary time series applied to , giving the required solution. Applying the same inverse to the equation gives uniqueness. At an exceptional value, the spectral measure of a stationary time series would have to satisfy . A zero of on the unit circle makes the resulting density nonintegrable near that zero, contradicting finite variance.
If the usual additional causal time series convention is intended, the causality root criterion for an autoregressive model requires the roots of to lie outside the closed unit disk. Equivalently, the roots of lie strictly inside it. The real quadratic stability conditions reduce to and , giving the narrower answer
The printed question does not explicitly impose this extra convention. Both answers have therefore been distinguished. If , the exceptional parameters permit nonunique stationary homogeneous solutions rather than the nonexistence conclusion above.
At ,
Consequently the Wold representation is
The coefficients are absolutely summable, and . The past of lies in the closed linear span of the past white noise; conversely recovers that noise from present and past . Thus is orthogonal to the past of and is its one-step linear prediction error, as required for the Wold decomposition. There is no deterministic component.
Using orthogonality of the white noise, put and calculate the autocovariance by geometric sums:
Hence
In particular, and ; these also satisfy the Yule-Walker equations for this autoregressive model.