On the Limits of Spectral Methods for Frequency Estimation

An algorithm is presented which generates pairs of oscillatory random time series which have identical periodograms but differ in the number of oscillations. This result indicate the intrinsic limitations of spectral methods when it comes to the task of measuring frequencies. Other examples, one from medicine and one from bifurcation theory, are given, which also exhibit these limitations of spectral methods. For two methods of spectral estimation it is verified that the particular way end points are treated, which is specific to each method, is, for long enough time series, not relevant for the main result.