Skip to main content

All Questions

Filter by
Sorted by
Tagged with
4 votes
0 answers
112 views

MGFs of sum of (Rademacher) independent variables and (hyperbolic/spherical) Pythagorean theorem

Consider a set of iid random variables $X_1, X_2, \ldots$ (distribution to-be-specified later). For real numbers $a_1, a_2, \ldots$ (with $\sum_{k} a_k^2 < \infty$) define $$X = a_1 X_1 + a_2 X_2 +...
4 votes
1 answer
518 views

Probability to return to the origin for a uniform random walk

Consider a uniform random walk on $\mathbb{R}$, with stepsize chosen uniformly from the interval $(-1,1)$. The random walk start at $x=0$. Denote by $\rho_p dx$ the probability that the random walk ...
4 votes
1 answer
250 views

Does a subset with small cardinality represent the whole set?

Assume that we have heavy-tailed distribution $F(x)$ such that \begin{align} F(x)=\mathbb{P}[X\geq x]=x^{-0.5}. \end{align} Then, we produce $N$ independent samples $X_1,X_2,\ldots,X_N$ from this ...
4 votes
1 answer
338 views

Minimum of random walks

Let $M$ independent and identical random walks that follow the chi-squared distribution, i.e. in each step, a $X^2_1$ random variable is added. I am interested in the minimum random walk at each step. ...
1 vote
1 answer
215 views

Bernoulli trials with small dependencies: asymptotics (central limit theorem, law of the iterated logarithm)

Let $\{X_k\}$ be a sequence of random variables, with $X_k\in\{+1, -1\}$ for $k>0$, generated as follows. First, define $S_n=X_1+\dots +X_n$, with $X_0=S_0=0$, and let $0<\beta<\frac{1}{2}$. ...
4 votes
2 answers
480 views

Hitting probability of a line

Consider a simple (nearest neighbor) random walk on a lattice $\Bbb Z^2$ which starts at the origin, is constrained to $x\ge 0$ halfplane, and stops when it hits the line $x=n$. Denote by $p(n,k)$ ...
1 vote
0 answers
44 views

Small parameter expansion of probability density

I am trying to describe the motion of a particle that moves according to the Langevin equations \begin{align} \dot{x}&(t)=v_0\cos{\beta(t)},\tag{1}\\ \dot{y}&(t)=v_0\cos{\beta(t)},\tag{2} \end{...
10 votes
4 answers
680 views

The min of the mean of iid exponential variables

Let $X_1, \ldots, X_n, \ldots$ be iid exponential random variables with mean 1. It is well-known that $\min_{1\le j < \infty} \frac{X_1 + \cdots + X_j}{j}$ follows the uniform distribution U(0,1). ...
5 votes
0 answers
130 views

Random process on a sequence of rolls of an $n$-sided die

Let $\ X:=X_{k\,n}\ $ be a random variable of a $n$-sided die where $\Pr(X=i)=\frac{1}{n}$ for each $i\in\{1,2,\ldots,n\},\ $ where $\ k\in\{1, 2, \ldots,n\}\ $ and $\ n\ $ are fixed. Let $t$ be a ...
0 votes
0 answers
250 views

Concentration (or two sided tail bounds around expectations) of maximum and minimum of $n$ iid, subgaussian random variables

I asked this on MSE, but got no answer, hence asking here now. Help appreciated! My question is motivated by this question and this question, where the first was aimed for giving a one sided tail ...
2 votes
1 answer
900 views

Asymptotically tight concentration of norms of subgaussian random vectors with independent coordinates, as the dimension $n \to \infty?$

Let $X=(X_1 \dots X_n)\in \mathbb{R}^n,$ be a subgaussian random vector so that $X_i$'s are independent, $\mathbb{E}X_i = 0, \mathbb{E}X_i^2=1.$ Before we pose our question, let's state the following: ...
2 votes
1 answer
210 views

Marcenko-Pastur and Tracy-Widom laws for sample covariance and Gram matrices when the "features" are correlated: references

Let us assume we've a rectangular data matrix $X=[x_1 \dots x_n] \in \mathbb{R}^{p \times n}$, where the $x_i \in \mathbb{R}^{p \times 1}$ are iid column vectors. I'm not assuming here that the ...
1 vote
0 answers
83 views

Tracy Widom type results for asymptotic distribution of the $k$-th largest eigenvalue of the sample covariance when $n, p \to \infty$?

Earlier I asked a question: Distribution of the $k$-th largest eigenvalue of in the sample covariance matrix?, but I forgot to mention that I'd like results for asymtotic regime. So, I'm posting here ...
3 votes
2 answers
229 views

Expectation of the exitpoint distance for the symmetric random walk

Let $\nu(x)$ be a symmetric probability measure with respect to the origin on $x\in[-1,1]$ such that $\nu(\{0\})\neq 1$. Consider a random walk started at $S_0=0$, denoted $S_n=X_1+\dotsb+X_n$, ...
5 votes
1 answer
252 views

What is the pdf of Laplace distribution conditioned on a plane? How can I sample from it?

Our goal is to sample from the Laplace distribution conditioned on a linear subspace. Here are the details of this problem. Let $$p(x) \propto \exp(-\|x\|_1/\sigma)$$ be the pdf of the Laplace ...
2 votes
1 answer
228 views

Maximum of sums of iid $X_i$'s where $X_i$ is the difference of two exponential r.v

Given $X_i = A_i - B_i$ where $A_i\sim \text{ Exp}(\alpha)$ and $B_i \sim \text{ Exp}(\lambda)$. Define $S_k = \sum_{i=1}^k X_i$ with $S_0 = 0$, and $$M_n = \max_{1\leq k \leq n} S_k.$$ Is it ...
2 votes
0 answers
232 views

Random walk and comparing sums of Exponential random variables

Let $\sigma$ be the time a nearest neighbor random walk started at 1 that has probability $p>1/2$ of moving left reaches $0$. Let $\sigma'$ be an independent copy of $\sigma$. Let $(X_k)_1^\infty$ ...
7 votes
0 answers
774 views

Calculate the expectation of the maximum of averaged random walks

Let $X_1, X_2, \ldots$ be iid random variables with bounded second moment. The question is to calculate the exact value of $$\mathbb{E} \max_{1 \le j < \infty} \frac{X_1 + \cdots + X_j}{j}.$$ Is ...
4 votes
1 answer
288 views

Radon-Nikodym derivative of the group action on the Furstenberg-Poisson boundary of lamplighter groups

Let $G_d$ be the Lamplighter group $G_d = \mathbb{Z}^d \wr \mathbb{Z}_2 $ and $\Gamma =\{(\bar{\eta},\tilde{0}),(\bar{0},\tilde{e_1}), \cdots,(\bar{0},\tilde{e_d})\}$ be the generator set of $G_d$ (...
3 votes
1 answer
281 views

Stein's Equation for Gaussian Mixtures

In the paper "Spin glasses and Stein's method" (https://arxiv.org/pdf/0706.3500.pdf), Sourav Chatterjee established Stein's equation for mixtures of two Gaussian densities in $\mathbb{R}$, which takes ...
6 votes
0 answers
183 views

Distribution of the stopping time of an autoregressive sequence

Consider $e_t$ being i.i.d. uniformly chosen from $\pm 1$. Let $\eta$ be a small positive constant. What is the distribution of $T$ such that $\eta^{0.5} (1+\eta)^T W_T$ first hits $\pm 1$, in which $$...
8 votes
2 answers
3k views

Expectation of Maximum of Uniform Multinomial Distribution

Suppose we have a uniform multinomial distribution with $k$ buckets, i.e. we put $n$ items uniformly at random in $k$ buckets leading to $n_1, \dots, n_k$ items in each bucket respectively. Let $m = \...
3 votes
1 answer
196 views

Minimizer of two random walks

Consider the following two random walks: The first random walk $\{S_n\}$ has i.i.d. step size $$ X_i\sim\mathcal{N}(1,1) $$ The second random walk $\{S'_n\}$ has i.i.d. step size $$ Y_i\sim\mathcal{...
1 vote
1 answer
378 views

Discrete random walk with uniformly distributed transition p, set initially

I've been working on a discrete version of the "unreliable friend" distribution. It would seem that what I've come up with is equivalent to the following random walk: Choose $p$ from $U(0,1)$ Start ...
5 votes
1 answer
297 views

Random walk with continuously distributed steps on [-1,1]

A simple random walk $S_n = X_1 +\cdots +X_n$, where $P(X_i = 1) = p \not = 0.5$ and $P(X_i=-1)= q \triangleq 1-p$, admits the following probability $$P(S_n \textrm{ reaches } a \textrm{ before} -b) =...
6 votes
2 answers
2k views

Distribution of $\max_{n \ge 0} S_n$, random walk

Say we have a random walk that is a nearest neighbor random walk on the integers where at each step the probability of moving one step to the right is $p$ and the probability of moving one step to the ...
6 votes
1 answer
1k views

Properties of a finite random walk

Consider the simplest random walk - $X_0 = 0$ and from there on (i.i.d), $X_i=X_{i-1}+1$ with probability $p$ or $X_{i-1}-1$ otherwise. Let $Y_N$ be the highest point $X$ have reached on the first $N$...
2 votes
1 answer
521 views

Limit of a rescaled random sum of i.i.d. random variables

Consider a sequence of i.i.d. random variables $(X_i)_{i \in \mathbb N}$ and let $S_n=X_1+\dots+X_n$ For every $\alpha \in ]0,+\infty[$, let $N(\alpha)$ be a discrete random variable on $\mathbb N$, ...
5 votes
0 answers
1k views

Compute the expected value of the next step of a sorted random walk

Here's what I'm thinking about. If you have a random walk (move +1 or -1 at each step) of some fixed length, then if you're at the maximum of the walk, the next step you take is -1 with probability 1. ...
5 votes
2 answers
3k views

Probability of return at step $n$ of a Random walk to its starting vertex

Hi, given a discrete simple Random walk on a symmetric graph, what is known about the probability of the random walker to return to a starting site at step $n$? Specifically, I am interested in the ...