All Questions
Tagged with pr.probability gaussian
220 questions
62
votes
7
answers
10k
views
Why is the Gaussian so pervasive in mathematics?
This is a heuristic question that I think was once asked by Serge Lang. The gaussian: $e^{-x^2}$ appears as the fixed point to the Fourier transform, in the punchline to the central limit theorem, as ...
- 631
36
votes
4
answers
2k
views
Determinant of the random matrix $X^2+Y^2$
$\DeclareMathOperator\Prob{Prob}$Let $X,Y\in M_n(\mathbb{R})$ be $2$ random matrices. The entries of $X,Y$ are i.i.d. variables. They follow the standard normal law $N(0,1)$.
i) When $n=2,3,4$, one ...
- 3,741
23
votes
7
answers
5k
views
What makes Gaussian distributions special?
I'm looking for as many different arguments or derivations as possible that support the informal claim that Gaussian/Normal distributions are "the most fundamental" among all distributions.
...
16
votes
6
answers
3k
views
A normal distribution inequality
Let $n(x) := \frac{1}{\sqrt{2\pi}} e^{-\frac{x^2}{2}}$, and $N(x) := \int_{-\infty}^x n(t)dt$. I have plotted the curves of the both sides of the following inequality. The graph shows that the ...
- 2,239
13
votes
1
answer
10k
views
KL divergence and mixture of Gaussians
Do we have an exact formula to compute the KL divergence between 2 mixtures of Gaussians (i.e convex combinations of a finite number of Gaussian distributions)?
If not exactly known, are there good ...
- 2,246
12
votes
3
answers
3k
views
Gaussian distribution, maximum entropy and the heat equation
I have asked this question on MathSE, but I got no replies, so I thought of trying here.
Consider the Gaussian distribution on $\mathbb{R}$ with mean $m$ and variance $t=\sigma^2$. This has the ...
- 577
12
votes
3
answers
760
views
Asymptotics of functional of i.i.d. Rademacher random variables
Let $X_1,\ldots, X_n$ be i.i.d. Rademacher random variables. That is, $\operatorname{Pr}(X_i = 1) = \operatorname{Pr}(X_i = -1) = 1/2$. I was wondering if the following argument is true:
$$
\mathbb{E} ...
- 1,127
10
votes
1
answer
253
views
Approximation via finite rank Cameron-Martin projections
Let $(W, \|\cdot\|_W)$ be a real separable Banach space equipped with
a non-degenerate Gaussian Borel measure $\mu$. Let $H \subset W$ be
the corresponding Cameron-Martin Hilbert space (also known as ...
- 29.8k
8
votes
1
answer
533
views
Concentration bounds for martingales with adaptive Gaussian steps
Consider the following martingale: $X_1 \sim \mathcal{N}(0, 1)$, and for any $n > 1$, $X_n \sim \mathcal{N}(X_{n-1}, X_{n-1}^2)$ (notice, this is a conditional distribution given $X_{n-1}$).
I am ...
- 83
8
votes
2
answers
671
views
Ways of proving normal distribution (with a view towards Selberg's central limit theorem)
Given an random variable $Y:\Omega \to \mathbb{R}$ with finite mean $\mu$ and finite, positive variance $\sigma^2$, let $X = \frac{Y-\mu}{\sigma}$ be the renormalization with mean $0$ and variance $1$....
- 1,354
8
votes
1
answer
414
views
Upper-bound on the Fisher-Rao distance between multivariate Gaussian measures by the KL-divergence
Let $\mu$ and $\nu$ be two multivariate Gaussian measures on $\mathbb{R}^d$ with non-singular covariance matrices. Can the Fisher-Rao distance $d(\mu,\nu)$ computed on the information manifold of non-...
- 169
8
votes
2
answers
849
views
Is the Gaussian Correlation Inequality universal?
T. Royen proved the Gaussian correlation inequality in the context of Gamma distributions back in 2014, which was since popularized by Latala and Matlak. The properties of Gaussian integration seem ...
- 4,466
8
votes
1
answer
421
views
Is there an infinite dimensional Stein's lemma?
Classical Stein's lemma says that if $\mathbf{X}$ is a centered Gaussian random vector and $g$ is a function which is nice enough, we have
$$
\mathbb{E} \, X_i \, g ( \mathbf{X} )
= \sum_k \...
- 620
8
votes
0
answers
422
views
Non-affine smooth transformation of Gaussian is Gaussian
Suppose $Z\sim N(0,1)$ (standard Gaussian) and $f: \mathbb{R} \to \mathbb{R}$ is a differentiable function such that $f(Z)\sim N(0,1)$. My question is whether there exists any such $f$ other than $f(x)...
- 399
7
votes
1
answer
482
views
Continuous dependence of the expectation of a r.v. on the probability measure
$\newcommand{\bsV}{\boldsymbol{V}}$ $\newcommand{\bsE}{\boldsymbol{E}}$ $\newcommand{\bR}{\mathbb{R}}$ Suppose that $\bsV$ is an $N$-dimensional real Euclidean space. Denote by $\newcommand{\eA}{\...
- 34.7k
6
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Are Gaussian Processes more important than other stochastic processes?
I am doing a course at university and it deals with Gaussian Processes mainly. We use them for fitting data and prediction, machine learning, regression, classification. Is there any particular reason ...
- 87
6
votes
3
answers
1k
views
Expected determinant of random symmetric matrix with different Gaussian distributions of the diagonal and non-diagonal elements
Consider a random matrix $A \in \mathbb{R}^{N \times N}$ where the elements are random gaussian variables. The mean and variance of the elements are different on the diagonal and the off-diagonal:
$\...
- 355
6
votes
4
answers
3k
views
Calculating the probability of an event defined by a condition on a Gaussian random process
Although the question itself can be expressed succinctly, I couldn't come up with a nice self-explanatory title - suggestions are welcome.
Motivation/Background
I was investigating whether it would ...
6
votes
2
answers
662
views
Infimum of Gaussian process
Consider a Gaussian Process $g\sim GP(\mu,k)$ with mean zero $\mu\equiv0$ and continues covariance $k(t_1,t_2)=k(|t_1-t_2|)$ defined on the interval $A=[0,T]$. I'd like to make no assumptions about g(...
- 373
6
votes
1
answer
713
views
Equivalence of Gaussian measures
Let $H$ be a separable Hilbert space and $N(0, C)$ and $N(0, D)$ be Gaussian measures on it. Further, for each $v \in H$, define $R_v = \frac{\left\langle v,Cv \right\rangle}{\left\langle v,Dv \right\...
- 157
6
votes
2
answers
622
views
If Gaussian measures on a Hilbert space converge weakly to 0, how do their covariance operators converge?
Suppose we have a sequence of Gaussian measures $N(0, S(n))$ supported on a Hilbert space $H$ and we know that the sequence converges weakly to the delta measure at $0$, what are the necessary and ...
- 93
6
votes
2
answers
904
views
Gaussian measure on function spaces
I'm reading this classic work and I'd like to get deeper inside some of its techniques. In particular, the authors state: "We construct a Gaussian measure $d\mu_{0}(\phi)$ on a measure space of ...
- 3,515
6
votes
1
answer
398
views
Does a Gaussian process shrink under a contraction map
Let $T \subset \mathbb R^n$, and assume it's a finite set if that helps. Consider the symmetric Gaussian process $(X_t)_{t\in T}$ defined by $X_t = \langle G, t\rangle$, where $G$ is a standard ...
- 757
6
votes
1
answer
237
views
Ordering preference for two zero mean Gaussian outcomes
Let $X\sim \mathcal{N}(0,1)$ be a standard Gaussian random variable. If we let $f_a(x)\triangleq\mathbb{E}[\max\{aX,x\}]$ for $a,x >0$, how to prove that $$f_a(f_b(1))<f_b(f_a(1))~~\text{for }0&...
- 171
6
votes
1
answer
264
views
Which orthant probabilities are the largest? (For a multivariate normal distribution)
I have a $k$-dimensional multivariate normal distribution $X∼N(0,\Sigma)$ with covariance matrix $\Sigma$. $\Sigma$ has two distinct eigenvalues, say $\lambda_1 > \lambda_2$, with orthogonal ...
6
votes
1
answer
170
views
Probabilities of small balls with convergent center points under Gaussian measure
I'm in the following situation:
Consider a centred Gaussian measure $\mu_0$ on a separable Hilbert space $X$ with covariance operator $Q \in \mathcal{L}(X)$ (positive definite, self-adjoint, trace ...
- 61
6
votes
1
answer
328
views
Show that $M_X(t) = 2 E \left[ e^{tX} \Phi( aX-t) \right], \forall t \in \mathbb{R}$ iff $X$ is Gaussian
Let $M_X(t)$ denote the moment generating function of a random variable $X$. Now suppose that the following expression holds: for a given $a>0$
\begin{align}
M_X(t) = 2 E \left[ e^{tX} \Phi( aX-t) ...
- 671
5
votes
3
answers
665
views
The relative error of approximating a binomial
Are there any good approximations for a binomial CDF that work well in terms of the relative error, as opposed to absolute? For the usual normal approximation, the absolute error is very well-studied ...
- 4,049
5
votes
1
answer
942
views
Moments of maximum of independent Gaussian random variables
Let $X = (X_1, \ldots, X_d) \in \mathbb{R}^d$ be a mean-zero Gaussian random vector with identity covariance matrix. Are there upper bounds for
$$E \left(\|X\|_{\infty}^k \right)$$ for $k=1, \ldots, ...
- 519
5
votes
3
answers
898
views
Lower bound for Gaussian random vector with negative correlation
Let $X = (X_1,\ldots,X_n) \in \mathbb{R}^n$ be jointly Gaussian with mean $0$, covariance matrix: $Var(X_i) = 1$, $Cov(X_i, X_{i+1}) = -1/2$, and $Cov(X_i, X_j) = 0$ else.
Let $\zeta \in \mathbb{R}^...
- 1,010
5
votes
1
answer
1k
views
A general formula for Gaussian integrals over matrix elements
The question I have is quite specific. So in the hope that this post might help others in the future, my problem boils down to solving the following integral:
$$I_\tau=\int \prod_{i, j=1}^{N} d J_{i ...
- 117
5
votes
1
answer
188
views
Girsanov's theorem for Gaussian measures as the Cameron-martin theorem with a random shift
Let $H \subset E$ be the Cameron-Martin space of a Gaussian measure $\mu$ on a separable Banach space $E$. The Cameron-Martin theorem states that for all $h \in E$ we have $h \in H$ if and only if $\...
- 203
5
votes
1
answer
224
views
Hermite polynomial after rotation
When we consider the $n$-dimensional standard normal distribution, the orthogonal basis is $\{H_S(x)\}_{S}$ where $H_S(x) = \prod_{k=1}^n H_{s_k}(x_k)$. Here $H_*(x)$ is the normalized probabilist's ...
- 75
5
votes
1
answer
392
views
comparing Gaussian to order statistic of Gaussian
I would like to compute the probability of
$$\mathbb{P}[Y > \max(X_i)], Y\sim N(0, 1), X_i \sim N(0, \sigma_i)$$
All the random variables have zero mean, but the variances are different.
My ...
- 151
5
votes
1
answer
225
views
Anti-concentration of Gaussian when conditioning on event
Let $v$ be a given vector with $\|v\|_{\Sigma^{-1}} \leq 1$, where $\Sigma$ is a positive semi-definite matrix and $\|v\|_{\Sigma^{-1}} = \sqrt{v^\top\Sigma v}$. Meanwhile, let $u$ be a random vector ...
- 1,127
5
votes
2
answers
174
views
Integrability of Gaussian sums
Let $(X_1, \ldots, X_n)$ be a Gaussian vector, and $Z = \sum_{i=1}^n |X_i|$.
Since the map $x \mapsto e^{x^2}$, is convex, for any $t>0$
$$
e^{tZ^2} \, = \, e^{t \big(\sum_{i=1}^n |X_i| \big)^2}...
- 51
5
votes
1
answer
295
views
Constructive Central Limit Theorem
Background: Let $\{a_i\}_{i=1}^n$ be i.i.d. random variables with zero-mean and unit variance, on a probability space $\Omega$. Define $$s_n=\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}}\sum_{i\leq n} a_i$$
Central limit ...
- 159
5
votes
1
answer
959
views
Approximating the mathematical expectation of the argmax of a Gaussian random vector
Let $X = \left( {{X_1},...,{X_n}} \right) \sim \mathcal{N}\left( {{\mathbf{\mu }},{\mathbf{\Sigma }}} \right)$ be a Gaussian random vector and $I = \mathop {\arg \max }\limits_{i = 1,n} {X_i}$.
$I$ ...
- 1,026
5
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Explicit constant for Carbery–Wright inequality
The Carbery–Wright inequality is a seminal result about the anti-concentration of polynomials of Gaussian random variables.
See e.g. Meka, Nguyen, and Vu - Anti-concentration for polynomials of ...
- 111
5
votes
0
answers
857
views
Anti-concentration inequality for Gaussian random vector
I am trying to obtain an explicit expression for $C$ in terms of $b$ in the following inequality.
Suppose that $Y$ is a centred Gaussian random vector in $\mathbb R^p$ such that $\operatorname EY_j^...
- 423
5
votes
0
answers
204
views
anti-concentration of multi-linear polynomials in Gaussian variables
A Gaussian variable $X_i\sim {\cal N}(0,1)$ is anti-concentrated in the following sense: for any $\epsilon>0$ we have:
$$
\mathbf{P}( |X_i| \leq \epsilon ) = O(\epsilon).
$$
Hence if we consider a ...
- 445
5
votes
0
answers
120
views
L^1 maximal inequalities for the Ornstein-Uhlenbeck semigroup in infinite dimension
For an infinite-dimensional Gaussian random vector $X$ consider the Ornstein-Uhlenbeck maximal operator:
$M f(X) := \sup_{\rho \in [0,1]} \mathsf{E} [f(\rho X + (1-\rho^2)^{1/2} X^\prime) \mid X]$
(...
- 4,010
4
votes
2
answers
1k
views
Reducing system of equations involving Erf, Error Function
I have a system of equations:
$$1/2 + {\rm Erf}(x) - {\rm Erf}(\frac{x+y}{2})=0$$
$$-1/2 + {\rm Erf}(y) - {\rm Erf}(\frac{x+y}{2})=0,$$
Where $x \le y$ and ${\rm Erf}$ is the Error Function.
By ...
- 123
4
votes
1
answer
311
views
Examples of Borel probability measures on the Schwartz function space?
Let $\mathcal{S}(\mathbb{R}^d)$ be the Frechet space of Schwartz functions on $\mathbb{R}^n$. Its dual space $\mathcal{S}'(\mathbb{R}^d)$ is the space of tempered distributions.
Minlos Theorem as ...
- 3,477
4
votes
1
answer
161
views
For centered Gaussian measures, is $E[\lVert X\rVert^2] \lesssim E[\lVert X\rVert ]^2$ true in infinite dimensions as well?
In the proof of Corollary 5.7 in the following link:
https://arxiv.org/pdf/1610.05200.pdf
the author claims that $E[\lVert X\rVert^2] \lesssim E[\lVert X\rVert ]^2$ for the standard normal ...
- 3,477
4
votes
1
answer
431
views
Central limit theorem for resampling
This is a cross-post from stats.stackexchange.com. No answer has appeared there. Since this is a theoretical question, mathoverflow.net seems to be a more appropriate venue for it.
What is the analog ...
- 2,239
4
votes
1
answer
356
views
Recovering a function from its Gaussian convolution
Let $\varphi(x)=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2\pi}}\exp(-x^2/2)$ be the Gaussian density and
$f:\mathbb{R}\to\mathbb{R}$ another measurable function.
Under what conditions can $f$ be recovered from its convolution ...
- 43
4
votes
1
answer
178
views
Number of times a Gaussian process crosses zero in an interval
Using a probabilistic method for number theoretic purposes, I have encountered the following question (it may be very standard):
Let $X_t$ be a Gaussian process $(t>0)$ such that $X_0=0$. What ...
- 2,288
4
votes
1
answer
681
views
Tail bound for product of normal distribution
Let $U, V$ be two standard normal random variables with covariance $cov(U,V) = \beta \in [0,1)$. Let $W = UV$ be the product of two RV's, and $W_1, W_2, \ldots, W_n$ be n i.i.d copies of $W$, what's ...
- 515
4
votes
3
answers
345
views
Do subgaussian variables obey the slightly-stronger-than-Chernoff tail bound?
If $X \sim Normal(0,1)$, then we have the tail bound:
$$ (*) \qquad\Pr[X > t] \leq \mathcal{O}\left(\frac{e^{-t^2/2}}{t}\right) .$$
Now for general variables $X$, a nice condition is that $X$ be ...
- 4,529