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20 votes
2 answers
6k views

Constants in the Rosenthal inequality

Let $X_1,\ldots,X_n$ be independent with $\mathbf{E}[X_i] = 0$ and $\mathbf{E}[|X_i|^t] < \infty$ for some $t \ge 2$. Write $X = \sum_{i=1}^n X_i$. Then we have the family of "Rosenthal-type ...
Jelani Nelson's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
143 views

Comparison of hitting probability of two Markov chains both with only one absorbing state version 2 under stronger condition

Let $N_n:=\{1,2,\cdots,n\}$. Given two finite states Markov chains $\big(X^{(j)}_i\in N_n\}\big)_{i=0}^\infty$ for $j\in\{1,2\}$, both of which have two absorbing states at $1$ and $n$. $\text{Pr}\...
Hans's user avatar
  • 2,239
37 votes
3 answers
3k views

An entropy inequality

Let $X,Y$ be probability measures on $\{1,2,\dots,n\}$, and set $K=\sum_i\sqrt{X(i)Y(i)}$ so that $Z:=\frac{1}{K}\sqrt{XY}$ is also a probability measure on $\{1,2,\dots,n\}$. How can we prove the ...
Eric Naslund's user avatar
  • 11.4k
36 votes
3 answers
4k views

the following inequality is true,but I can't prove it

The inequality is \begin{equation*} \sum_{k=1}^{2d}\left(1-\frac{1}{2d+2-k}\right)\frac{d^k}{k!}>e^d\left(1-\frac{1}{d}\right) \end{equation*} for all integer $d\geq 1$. I use computer to verify ...
useag's user avatar
  • 363
26 votes
3 answers
3k views

An $L^0$ Khintchine inequality

Suppose that $\epsilon_1,\epsilon_2,\ldots$ are IID random variables with the Bernoulli distribution $\mathbb{P}(\epsilon_n=\pm1)=1/2$, and $a_1,a_2,\ldots$ is a real sequence with $\sum_na_n^2=1$. ...
George Lowther's user avatar
21 votes
7 answers
2k views

Identities and inequalities in analysis and probability

Usually, at the heart of a good limit theorem in probability theory is at least one good inequality – because, in applications, a topological neighborhood is usually defined by inequalities. Of course,...
18 votes
3 answers
3k views

Entropy and total variation distance

Let $X$, $Y$ be discrete random variables taking values within the same set of $N$ elements. Let the total variation distance $|P-Q|$ (which is half the $L_1$ distance between the distributions of $P$ ...
H A Helfgott's user avatar
  • 20.2k
15 votes
0 answers
749 views

Prove $\int_{0}^{\infty} \cos(\omega x) \exp(-x^{\alpha}) \, {\rm d} x \ge {\alpha^2 \sqrt{\pi} \over 8} \exp \left( -\frac{\omega^2}{4} \right)$

I would like to prove that $$\int_{0}^{\infty} \cos(\omega x) \exp(-x^{\alpha}) \, {\rm d} x \ge {\alpha^2 \sqrt{\pi} \over 8} \exp \left( -\frac{\omega^2}{4} \right)$$ for any $\omega > 0$ and $...
Tanya Vladi's user avatar
11 votes
1 answer
676 views

Entropy arguments used by Jean Bourgain

My question comes from understanding a probabilistic inequality in Bourgain's paper on Erdős simiarilty problem: Construction of sets of positive measure not containing an affine image of a given ...
Tutukeainie's user avatar
10 votes
3 answers
4k views

Extension of the Azuma-Hoeffding inequality (when the differences are bounded with large probability)

Let $(X_i)$ be a super-martingale and suppose their differences are bounded ''with high probability'', that is $$\mathbb{P}(\exists\,i=1,\dots,n\text{ s.t. }|X_i-X_{i-1}|>c_i) \,\leq\, \epsilon$$ ...
user118866's user avatar
7 votes
1 answer
499 views

Moments of a random variable and of its conditional expectation

Let $X$ be a bounded random variable with $\mathbb{E}X=0$. Since $X$ is bounded, all its moments exist. Let $\mathcal{G}$ be any $\sigma$-field and let $Y:=\mathbb{E}[X|\mathcal{G}].$ I am interested ...
Hedonist's user avatar
  • 1,269
6 votes
1 answer
375 views

Deviation bound for the maximum of the norm of Wiener process

Let $W(t)$ be an $n$-dimensional Wiener process. Denote by $\chi_n^2$ a chi-squared random variable with $n$ degrees of freedom. I have recently found the following inequality given without proof: $$ {...
Raindog's user avatar
  • 61
5 votes
2 answers
202 views

Monotonicity of a parametric integral

For real $x>0$, let $$f(x):=\frac1{\sqrt x}\,\int_0^\infty\frac{1-\exp\{-x\, (1-\cos t)\}}{t^2}\,dt.$$ How to prove that $f$ is increasing on $(0,\infty)$? Here is the graph $\{(x,f(x))\colon0<...
Iosif Pinelis's user avatar
5 votes
4 answers
4k views

Is there an inequality relation between KL-divergence and $L_2$ norm?

According to the Pinsker inequality, we have the following inequality: \begin{equation} \delta_{TV} (p, q)^2 \leq \frac{1}{2} D_{KL}(p,q), \end{equation} where $\delta_{TV} (\cdot, \cdot)$ and $D_{KL}...
Ze-Nan Li's user avatar
  • 175
5 votes
1 answer
512 views

Concentration inequality for Hilbert space valued random variables

I have read in a paper about the following result: Let $V$ be a separable Hilbert space and $(\Omega,A_{\Omega},P)$ a probability space. Suppose that $Y_1,Y_2,...$ is a sequence of independent $V$-...
Hugo10T's user avatar
  • 115
5 votes
0 answers
295 views

inequality in a shape of inclusion exclusion formula

I have two inequalities to show, both of which describe some probabilities. First I know how to handle, and it follows from applying arithmetic-harmonic mean inequality: consider 9 numbers $a_1,a_2,...
Marek Adamczyk's user avatar
4 votes
3 answers
161 views

Find distribution that minimises a function of its moments

Imagine a probability density function $f(x)$, defined for positive $x$, and let's note its $n$th non-centred moment $x_{n}$. The mean $x_{1}$ is fixed (and positive). How can I find $f(x)$ that ...
user655870's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
285 views

Probability of existence of $\lambda$ such that $\lambda a_i \geq b_i$, for i.i.d random variables $a_i$'s and $b_i$'s

Suppose $a_i$'s and $b_i$'s ($1\leq i\leq n$) are i.i.d Gaussian random variables. What's the probability that a $\lambda$ exists such that $\lambda a_i \geq b_i, ~\forall i$? Actually, an upper bound ...
DSM's user avatar
  • 1,216
4 votes
1 answer
863 views

Hoeffding's inequality for Hilbert space valued random elements

Suppose that $\mathbb H$ is a separable Hilbert space and $X_1,\ldots,X_n$ are independent zero mean $\mathbb H$-valued random elements such that $\|X_i\|\le s$ for each $1\le i\le n$, where $\|\cdot\|...
Cm7F7Bb's user avatar
  • 423
4 votes
2 answers
2k views

Bounds on the mills ratio

How do I show the following bounds on the mills ratio : $\frac{1}{x}- \frac{1}{x^3} < \frac{1-\Phi(x)}{\phi(x)} < \frac{1}{x}- \frac{1}{x^3} +\frac{3}{x^5} \ \ \ \ \ \ \ $ for $ \ \ \ x>0$ ...
John's user avatar
  • 183
4 votes
1 answer
1k views

Does variants of Bernstein and Freedman concentration inequalities exist with NO uniform bound on the range of RV or martingale differences

A classic formulation of the Bernstein inequality (from Wikipedia) is as follow: Let $X_1, \ldots, X_n$ be independent zero-mean random variables. Suppose that $|X_i|\leq M$ almost surely, for all $i$...
Jean Claude's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
474 views

Concentration inequalities in $\ell_{\infty}$ for sums of iid random ("nice") functions?

I'm looking for "tail-bound-like" inequalities that look like this (I state a specific setting but more general settings are interesting): Let $D$ be a distribution on a set of "nice" functions $g$:...
usul's user avatar
  • 4,529
4 votes
1 answer
168 views

Existence of copula bound pointwise strictly smaller than the Fréchet-Hoeffding upper bound

Consider bivariate copulas $C_1$ and $C_2$ with $\max\{C_1(u,v), C_2(u,v)\}< M_2(u,v)$ for all $u,v \in(0,1)$, where $M_2(u,v) := \min\{u,v\}$ is the Fréchet-Hoeffding upper bound. Is there a ...
Corram's user avatar
  • 143
3 votes
1 answer
197 views

possibility of bounding one functional by another functional

This is a natural follow-up question related to one of my previous questions at here. Assume that $\rho$ is a log-concave probability density function with support $[0,\infty)$ and fixed mean $\mu >...
Fei Cao's user avatar
  • 730
3 votes
0 answers
494 views

Maximization of a total variation distance subject to another total variation distance in Markov chain

Suppose two dependent random variables $X$ and $V$ from finite alphabets $\mathcal{V}$ and $\mathcal{X}$ with known joint and marginal distributions are given. Let $P_{XV}$ and $P_X$ and $P_V$ are the ...
math-Student's user avatar
  • 1,109
3 votes
1 answer
229 views

Inequality for difference of consecutive atom probabilities for binomial distribution

Edit: This post was originally two questions, the first of which has been answered, but a reference would still be appreciated if existent. The second question has been removed and migrated to its ...
Pat Devlin's user avatar
  • 2,720
3 votes
1 answer
142 views

How does the integral of pseudo Gaussian kernel on $(0,\infty)$ depend on its variance?

Let $a, b: \mathbb R_+ \to [0,1]$ be continuous functions. Let $k: \mathbb R_+\times\mathbb R \to [1,2]$ be $1-$Lipschitz. Set, for $0<s<t$ and $y>0$, $$A(s,t,y):=\int_s^t\frac{k(u,y)}{1+a(u)}...
user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
3k views

Is there a tight lower bound for the expectation of the product of two positive valued random variables?

Let $X,Y$ be two (dependent) random variables with $\mathbb{P}(X\ge 0)=\mathbb{P}(Y\ge 0)=1$. I want to find a tight lower bound of $\mathbb{E}(XY)$ when $X,Y$ are non-negative, almost surely. ...
Samrat Mukhopadhyay's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
796 views

Can we get that $ P(N^{2/3}(\lambda_N-\lambda_{N-1})\le c)\ge 1-\epsilon$?

Following this question: Can we apply the continuous mapping theorem for the limiting joint distribution of the Tracy-Widom law?. We know that $$ \lim_{N\to\infty}P(N^{2/3}(\lambda_N-2)\le s_1,\dotsc,...
Hermi's user avatar
  • 288
2 votes
1 answer
136 views

Does higher volatility of SDE imply lower probability of staying positive?

Given two SDEs $X^1$, $X^2$ : $$X^i_t=1+t+\int_0^t\sigma_i(s)dW_s,\quad \forall t\ge 0,$$ where $\sigma_i:\mathbb R_+\to [1/2,1]$ are non-decreasing s.t. $\sigma_1(t)\le \sigma_2(t)$ for all $t\ge 0$....
GJC20's user avatar
  • 1,334
2 votes
3 answers
222 views

Can we find such $k$ so that the following inequality holds?

I found this question: Chernoff style concentration bound for ratio of variables. I want to ask if we get similar thing for the ratio of the sum and the one Gaussian variable. Given i.i.d. Gaussian ...
Hermi's user avatar
  • 288
2 votes
0 answers
124 views

Generalization of the triangle inequality to complex exponents: What is $P\left(\left| x^{a+bi} + y^{a+bi} \right| \ge \left|z^{a+bi}\right|\right)$?

Let $x \le y \le z$ be the length of the sides of a triangle whose vertices are uniformly random on the circumference of a circle. In this question, it was proved that if $a \ge 1$, then the ...
Nilotpal Kanti Sinha's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
161 views

Trying to bound one functional by another functional

In my little research project, I faced the following problem: Assume that $\rho$ is a probability density function with support $[0,\infty)$ and mean $\mu >0$. Let $$H[\rho] = \iiint_{y,v,w\geq 0} \...
Fei Cao's user avatar
  • 730
1 vote
0 answers
133 views

Does the Gaussian Poincare inequality hold for infinite dimensional measure metric spaces?

This is a question subsequent to the one: Does the Gaussian Poincare inequality hold for $p=1$ as well as $p=2$? There, I received a very helpful answer that the Gaussian poincare inequality for any ...
Isaac's user avatar
  • 3,477
1 vote
1 answer
227 views

Does the Gaussian Poincare inequality hold for $p=1$ as well as $p=2$?

Let $X$ be a real-valued standard normal variable. Then, for any differentiable function $f: \mathbb{R} \to \mathbb{R}$ such that $E[f(X)^2] < \infty$ and $E[\bigl( f'(X) \bigr)^2] < \infty$, it ...
Isaac's user avatar
  • 3,477
1 vote
1 answer
97 views

A strict inequality for the $L^1$-norm of a symmetrized zero-mean random variable

Suppose that $Y$ is an independent copy of a random variable (r.v.) $X$ with a zero-mean nondegenerate distribution. Is it then always true that $E|X-Y|>E|X|$? To get the non-strict version of ...
Iosif Pinelis's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
362 views

An inequality involving the Wasserstein distance and chi-squared distance

$\newcommand{\N}{\mathbb N}$Let $P$ be the set of all probability mass functions on $\N_0:=\{0\}\cup\N$, where $\N:=\{1,2,\dots\}$. Let $P_{>0}$ denote the set of all $q=(q_0,q_1,\dots)\in P$ such ...
Iosif Pinelis's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
503 views

Asymptotics of a 1D integral, or the orthant probability of an equicorrelated random Gaussian vector

Problem: Let $\phi(x)$ be the normal probability density function (pdf), and $\Phi(x)$ the normal cumulative distribution (cdf). I'm interested in the asymptotic behavior of the following integral $I(...
Daniel Soudry's user avatar