Eigensignals of Downsamplers in Time and Transform Domains

As a fundamental building block of multirate systems, the downsampler, also known as the decimator, is a periodically time-varying linear system. An eigensignal of the downsampler is defined to be an input signal which appears at the output unaltered or scaled by a non-zero coefficient. In this paper, the eigensignals are studied and characterized in the time and z domains. The time-domain characterization is carried out using number theoretic principles, while the one-sided z-transform and Lambert-form series are used for the transform-domain characterization. Examples of non-trivial eigensignals are provided. These include the special classes of multiplicative and completely multiplicative eigensignals. Moreover, the locus of poles of eigensignals with rational z transforms are identified.