All Questions
15 questions
5
votes
3
answers
667
views
The relative error of approximating a binomial
Are there any good approximations for a binomial CDF that work well in terms of the relative error, as opposed to absolute? For the usual normal approximation, the absolute error is very well-studied ...
- 4,069
2
votes
0
answers
93
views
Approximating a probability density with a point set
Let $f$ be a "nice" probability density on $\mathbb{R}^2$, let $p=1/k$ for some fixed positive integer $k$, and let $\epsilon>0$. Are there any known statements of the following form?
&...
- 4,069
2
votes
1
answer
199
views
Bounds for the beta CDF
This question is closely related to a previous question that I asked here:
An inequality involving the beta distribution
Let $a,b$ be strictly positive integers, and let $F_{a,b}(x)$ denote the CDF ...
- 4,069
3
votes
2
answers
1k
views
Expected value of a truncated binomial
Let $X\sim B(n,p)$ be a binomial random variable and fix $0<k<n$. Are there any well-known bounds for $\mathbb{E} (X-k)^+$, where $(X-k)^+ =\max\{0,X-k\}$? I am particularly interested in ...
- 4,069
1
vote
1
answer
144
views
A uniform mixture of order statistics
Let $0<k<n$ be integers, and let $X$ be a random variable obtained as follows: sample $n$ points independently and uniformly at random in the unit interval, and select (uniformly) one of the $k$...
- 4,069
4
votes
1
answer
386
views
Lower-bound for $\Pr[X \geq m]$ subject to $E[X]>m$ where $X$ is a binomial random variable
Given an integer number $m>0$ and a real number $\alpha\in [1, 2]$, I am interested in finding a lower-bound for $\Pr[X\geq m]$ subject to $X \sim \text{Binomial}(n, m\alpha/n)$.
For large values ...
- 189
2
votes
1
answer
437
views
Best approximation of a compactly supported density by a single Gaussian
Note: This is a follow-up question inspired by a previous (more difficult) question I asked on MathOverflow.
Let $f:\mathbb{R}\to\mathbb{R}$ be a (sufficiently regular, e.g. smooth) probability ...
- 710
2
votes
0
answers
100
views
Reference Request: Total Variation Between Dependent and Independent Bernoulli Processes
Let $X$ be a random variable taking values in $\{0,1\}^n$ with the following distribution. For each coordinate $i$, we have $p_i = P(X_i = 1) = c/\sqrt n$, where $c$ is a (very small) constant. ...
- 560
0
votes
0
answers
268
views
Taylor series expansion of quantile function
Suppose $Y$ and $Z$ two random variables, $\lambda \in \mathbb{R} $.
We note $F^{-1}_{Y}(\alpha)$ the quantile function of the variable $Y$ at the quantile level $\alpha \in (0,1)$.
Do you have any ...
- 250
1
vote
0
answers
109
views
Bounding quantiles of the noncentral chi distribution
I need to bound the empirical quantiles for a noncentral chi distribution (not chi-squared) $\chi_\nu(\lambda)$, where $\nu$ is the number of degrees of freedom and $\lambda$ the non-centrality ...
- 162
3
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Normal approximation to the pointwise/Hadamard/Schur product of two multivariate Gaussian/normal random variables
Let $X \sim \mathcal{N}\left( {{\mu _x},\sigma _x^2} \right)$ and $Y \sim \mathcal{N}\left( {{\mu _y},\sigma _y^2} \right)$ be two univariate and independent Gaussian/normal random variables and let $...
- 1,026
2
votes
1
answer
295
views
The asymptotics of $\int_{-\infty}^{\infty} \phi(x) {\Phi(\frac{x}{a})}^{qa} dx $ for normal distribution using saddle point approximation
In my probability and numerical analysis research I have come across the following predicament:
If we have a standard normal random variable X with CDF $ \Phi $, and PDF $ \phi $ I am interested in ...
- 620
1
vote
1
answer
324
views
Averaged geometric series with floor function
Given a value $p\in[0,1]$ (a probability of occurrence), I would like to bound the following expression:
$$ s\frac{1-(1-p)^{k+1}}{p(k+1)} + (1-s)\frac{1-(1-p)^{k}}{pk},\ \ \ \text{where $k=\lfloor 1/...
5
votes
2
answers
155
views
Approximate Moment Conditions
It is known in classical probability that if two random variables $X$ and $Y$ obeys
$$\mathbb{E} X^k = \mathbb{E}Y^k, \ \forall \ k \geq 1$$
with additional condition that $\mathbb{E}X^k$ does not ...
- 773
3
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Empirical estimator for total variation distance between two product distributions
Let $X = (X_1, X_2, \ldots , X_n)$ be an $n$-dimensional random variable, where each $X_i$ is a random variable on finite discrete set $S$. In addition, $X_i$ are independent of each other (but not ...
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