  Dynamical spectral estimation is a well-established numerical approach for
estimating eigenvalues and eigenfunctions of the Markov transition operator
from trajectory data. Although the approach has been widely applied in
biomolecular simulations, its error properties remain poorly understood. Here
we analyze the error of a dynamical spectral estimation method called "the
variational approach to conformational dynamics" (VAC). We bound the
approximation error and estimation error for VAC estimates. Our analysis
establishes VAC's convergence properties and suggests new strategies for tuning
VAC to improve accuracy.
