Higher-Order Autocorrelations on Finite Abelian Groups

Abstract

The question of determining a signal from its higher-order autocorrelation data is of practical interest in fields as varied as X-ray crystallography, image processing, and satellite communications. At the heart of the issue is how much of this autocorrelation data one truly needs. We prove two new upper bounds on the order of data needed to determine a signal on a general (i.e. not necessarily cyclic) finite abelian group depending on some knowledge of the vanishing of the signal's Fourier transform. In investigating lower bounds on the required data, we classify signals on $\mathbb{Z}_6$ not determined by their fifth-order data and provide analogous examples on $\mathbb{Z}_{30}$.