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2 votes
2 answers
354 views

Is this a sufficient condition for joint normal distribution?

Suppose I have a random vector $\boldsymbol{Z}$, if I can prove that for $\forall \boldsymbol{\lambda} \neq \boldsymbol{0}$ where $\boldsymbol{\lambda}$ is a fixed vector, not a random vector, $\...
12 votes
1 answer
10k views

Square root of normal distribution

Let $X$ and $Y$ be independent random variates with the same probability distribution, $P(x)$. Assuming that the product $Z=XY$ is a random variate with normal distribution, say $$f_Z(x) = \frac{1}{\...
2 votes
2 answers
220 views

Does $X_n \xrightarrow{d} N(0,1)$ and $X_n/Y_n \xrightarrow{d} N(0,1)$ imply that $Y_n \xrightarrow{d} 1$?

I'm thinking about the following question: If $X_n$ and $X_n/Y_n$ both converge in distribution towards a standard Gaussian random variable and $Y_n \geq 0$ for all $n$, does then $Y_n$ necessarily ...
1 vote
0 answers
85 views

Maximum likelihood estimation with several distributions

My question concerns using Maximum likelihood to estimate unknown parameters used by several (poisson) distributions. The parameters are the pairs $(a_1,b_1),\dots,(a_N,b_N)$, and for each pair $(i,j),...
5 votes
2 answers
1k views

PDF of the product of normal and Cauchy distributions

I am having trouble in finding out the resulting PDF of the product of normal and Cauchy distributions. It turns out that we have a general formula for calculating the PDF of product of two random ...
5 votes
4 answers
2k views

Central limit theorem with degenerate covariance matrix

Are there known generalisations of the central limit theorem for several random variables when the covariance matrix is degenerate? The usual proof of CLT based on characteristic functions (see e.g. ...
1 vote
0 answers
65 views

Shift invariance for the distribution of quadratic polynomials

For a probability distribution $X$, supported on integers, define the shift-invariance of $X$, denoted by $shift(X)$ = total variation distance between the random variable $X$ and $X+1$. Let $p:\...
5 votes
1 answer
176 views

Asymptotic behavior of $X_n$ in a Dirichlet vector $(X_1, ..., X_n)$

Let $(\alpha_k)$ be a sequence of positive numbers and let $(Y_k)$ be a sequence of independent random variables $Y_k \sim \text{Gamma}(\alpha_k,1)$. Set $X_n=\dfrac{Y_n}{\sum_{i=1}^nY_i}$. (edit) ...
6 votes
2 answers
3k views

Weak convergence of random measures

Let $\mu_n,n\in \mathbb N$ be a random probability measures and let $\mu$ be a deterministic probability measure on $\mathbb R$. That is to say, that the $\mu_n$ are measurable maps from a probability ...
3 votes
0 answers
286 views

Inequality with CDF of order statistics

here is a problem I have been struggling with for a while now. This is for a paper I am working on. Any help would be appreciated! Here we go: Each bidder's valuation $\theta _{i},$ $i=1,...,N$, is ...
2 votes
1 answer
269 views

What are the generalized Gaussian probability laws that are infinitely divisible?

We consider the probability density, often called a generalized Gaussian density, $$p_{\alpha}(t) \propto \exp (- |t|^\alpha),$$ with parameter $0<\alpha<\infty$. For $p = 2$, we recognize a ...
0 votes
3 answers
690 views

An inequality based on expectation of continuous random variables

I am trying to prove the following statement: $$ E[g(X)] E[X^2g(X)]\ge E[Xg(X)] E[Xg(X)] $$ where $X$ is a random variable, $E[\cdot]$ denotes the expectation operator with respect to $X$, and ...
5 votes
3 answers
133 views

Random partitions with prescribed pairwise membership probabilities

Let $(p_{ij}) \in [0,1]^{n \times n}$ be a given symmetric matrix, with $1$ on the diagonal. Suppose $\pi$ is a partition of $[n]=\{1,\dots,n\}$ and let us write $i \stackrel{\pi}{\sim} j$ if $i$ and $...
5 votes
1 answer
3k views

1-wasserstein distance v.s. total variation distance

Suppose that $\mu_1$ and $\mu_2$ are two distributions defined on $\mathbb{R}^n$ and $\gamma$ is a symmetric distribution (around $0$) on $\mathbb{R}^n$ with compact support. Let $\gamma_x$ denote the ...
3 votes
1 answer
1k views

Book on Convergence Concepts in Probability without Measure Theory [closed]

I am looking for a comprehensive book on Probability which discusses Convergence of Random Variables in detail, excluding portions of Measure Theory. Allan Gut's "Probability: A Graduate Course" seems ...
2 votes
0 answers
1k views

Probability question involving drawing balls from an urn

Suppose there's an urn containing $r$ red balls and $b$ blue balls. At each trial, I'm drawing a ball at random from the urn, without replacement. Let $R$ denote the event of drawing a red ball, and ...
1 vote
0 answers
255 views

Multiple Bipartite graphs and matchings

I've been told recently that it's better i just for help regarding my 'specific' problem rather than lots of little questions around the same topic which appear somewhat unclear. I would first like to ...
4 votes
1 answer
821 views

Does bounding moments make distributions close in total variation distance?

Let $W\sim\mathcal{N}(0,\sigma^2)$ be a "reference" Gaussian random variable. Suppose I have a set of distributions, $\mathcal{W}$, where $W_a\in\mathcal{W}$ if it satisfies the following criteria: ...
3 votes
1 answer
476 views

distribution discretization

Let $\mu$ be a distribution on $\mathbb{R}^n$. We partition $\mathbb{R}^n$ into small cubes congruent with $[0,\delta)^n$, parallel to the axes. In each cube, pick a point $x$ (for instance, the ...
2 votes
0 answers
160 views

Is it possible to improve the order of convergence of averages of random variables if they are not identically distributed?

Let $X_n$ be a sequence of independent random variables (but not necessarily identically distributed) taking values in $[-1,1]$ that have the following property: 1) The average $A_n := \frac{(X_1+ \...
1 vote
1 answer
363 views

A calculation involving a uniform random variable quantile

THE PROBLEM: Let $U$ be a uniform distribution and $U_{n}$ be its nth empirical distribution. Suppose $t\in (0,1)$ and $n\in \mathbb{N}$ are constants. What's the explicit expression to $$E\{U_{n}^{-}...
0 votes
2 answers
136 views

What are some examples of isotrophic sets?

What are some examples of isotrophic sets? and is there a "good" way to describe them? Isotrophic meaning that a random vector X uniformly distributed in the set has the isotrophic property for all $...
1 vote
0 answers
1k views

How to show that two linear combinations of Bernoulli random variables have jointly Gaussian distribution (and more)

Let $X_1,\ldots,X_n$ be independent Bernoulli random variables such that $\mathbb{P}(X_i=\pm 1)=1/2$ and consider two collections of real numbers $a_1,\ldots,a_n, b_1,\ldots, b_n$. For the moment let ...
1 vote
0 answers
273 views

A natural sum over multisets (expectation over multinomial)

I think this is a natural question but am not sure where to find resources. Consider the possible multisets arising from choosing $n$ times an item from one of $k$ categories. We can represent one ...
-1 votes
1 answer
287 views

Property of relative entropy [closed]

For $X$ a measurable space and $P,Q$ two probability measures on $X$ s.t. $Q$ is absolutely continuous with respect to $P$, the relative entropy is defined as $$D(Q\|P)=\int_X \log(\frac{dQ}{dP})dQ,$$ ...
0 votes
0 answers
216 views

Computation on Random Bipartite graphs

I'm looking at a random bipartite graph $K_{\omega(n)}*K_{\omega(n)}$ where $\mathrm{log}(n)\leq \omega(n) \leq n^{1/2}$, in which each of the $\omega(n)^{2}$ edges is placed randomly with probability ...
9 votes
2 answers
532 views

Geometric interpretation of the average of two independent Cauchy distributions

Let me state two facts: (1) It is well known that if one takes a point uniformly distributed on the unit circle, and then takes it stereographic projection, the corresponding measure induced on the ...
1 vote
0 answers
63 views

A series with long-tailed terms

Let's consider the following series: $$ \zeta = \sum_{k=1}^{\infty} a_k \xi_k, $$ where the sum is understood as the limit in $L_2(\Omega)$, $a_k \in \mathbb{R}$, $\sum_{k=1}^{\infty} a_k^2< \...
2 votes
0 answers
737 views

Probability question involving simulations of picking balls from a bag

I’m working on a chemistry problem, which essentially translates to finding the answer to a related probability problem. However, my knowledge in probability is very limited and I'd be grateful if ...
1 vote
2 answers
221 views

A special class of random variables

I'm interested in classes C of $R^1$-valued random variables which possess the following properties: 1) the sum of two independent random variables from class C belongs to class C; 2) for any $\...
6 votes
1 answer
1k views

How to check if a symmetric random variables is the difference of two iid symmetric random variables

I have the continuous symmetric random variable $X$ in $\mathbb{R}$. If I know its distribution function $F(x)$ what are the conditions on $F(x)$ so that $X=Y_1 - Y_2$ where $Y_i$ are also iid ...
8 votes
1 answer
3k views

Algorithm to produce random number with a gamma distribution

I'd like to produce pseudo-random numbers with different distributions for a Monte Carlo simulation. I've got the poisson distribution working nicely with an algorithm from Knuth. I'm having trouble ...
2 votes
2 answers
407 views

How to calculate $P(\sum_{i=1}^{m}(A_i+S_i)\le L)$ with $A_i,L\sim\text{exp}(\lambda),S_i\sim\text{exp}(\mu)$ and positive integers $\lambda\neq\mu$?

Recently I was stumped by the calculation of the probability $$\mathbb{P} \big(\sum_{i=1}^{m} (A_i + S_i) \le L < \sum_{i=1}^{m+1} (A_i + S_i) \big)$$ where $A_i \sim \text{exp}(\lambda), S_i \sim ...
0 votes
1 answer
309 views

Probability of the maximum of a throw of an infinite number of $n$-sided dice being $k$ [closed]

Let $X$ be the random variable obtained as the maximum of a throw of $m$ dice (each of which is $n$-sided). In other words, $X = \max\{l_1,\cdots, l_m\}$ where $l_i$ can take any value between $1$ and ...
3 votes
0 answers
96 views

A 1-D random variable from a random distribution

I have a random variable $X$ that is drawn from the pdf $$ f(x; \mu, \sigma, \sigma_{\mu}, \sigma_{\sigma}) = \int_{-\infty}^{\infty} \int_{-\infty}^{\infty} \frac{1}{|\hat{\sigma}|\sqrt{2\pi }} \...
4 votes
0 answers
1k views

Total variation and Hellinger distance inequality between truncated Gaussians

We know that the total variation distance, $d_{TV}(P,Q) = \frac{1}{2}\left|\left|P-Q\right|\right|_1$, between any two distributions $P$ and $Q$ is lower bounded by their squared Hellinger distance, $...
9 votes
2 answers
2k views

What is the most extreme set 4 or 5 nontransitive n-sided dice?

A set of nontransitive dice is a set of dice whose face numbers are such that the relation "is more likely to roll a higher number than" is not transitive. (See wikipedia) For some sets, the ...
2 votes
1 answer
388 views

Quantiles moments and Convergence

QUESTION: Let $F$ be an absolutely continuous distribution function with density $f$, and $F_{n}$ be its nth empirical distribution. Suppose that $t\in (0,1)$ is constant. Is true the convergence $$...
3 votes
1 answer
688 views

Is it possible to construct any random variable on the Euclidean Probability space?

Let $(\Omega,\mathscr A,P)$ be an arbitrary probability space, and let $X:\Omega\to\mathbb R$ be a random variable. Then, one can generate a random variable $Y$ from the probability space $\big([0,1],\...
1 vote
1 answer
304 views

Entropy on a draw from a random distribution.

Suppose I am attempting to calculate the entropy of a continuous, normally distributed random variable $X$, from the distribution $\mathcal{N}(\mu, \sigma)$. This is easy to to do - I just calculate $...
3 votes
1 answer
326 views

Two matrix Fisher distributions on SO(3)?

After the uniform distribution (normalized Haar measure), the matrix Fisher distribution seems to be the most popular probability distribution on the Lie group SO(3). The density is proportional to ...
0 votes
1 answer
222 views

Behavior of the integral of products of probability densities

Assume $z \in \mathbb{R}^m$ and $x \in \mathbb{R}^n$. Assume we have proper density function $P(z)$ and proper conditional density function $P(x|z)$. We give the definition $$ T(x_1,\ldots,x_n) := \...
1 vote
0 answers
171 views

An inequality for moments of a random variable

I'm interested in a class C of $R^1$-valued random variables $\xi$ which satisfy an inequality of the type $$ (1) \qquad E|\xi|^p \leq F(E|\xi|^2), $$ where $p>2$, $F$ is a certain non-...
0 votes
1 answer
215 views

Residual lifetime of heavy-tailed random variable

The residual life time distribution of a random variable $X$ with distribution function $F$ is given by the formula \begin{equation}R(t)=P[X_\text{res}\leq t] = 1-\frac{1}{\mathbb{E}[X]}\int_{y=0}^\...
0 votes
1 answer
1k views

Expected value with a kronecker product and Gaussian distributional assumption

What is the expected value, $ \mathbb{E}\left[ I \otimes \left( \operatorname{diag}(ZZ^T\mathbf{1}) - ZZ^T\right)\right]$ where $Z \sim N(0, \sigma^2I) $? The kronecker product is where the confusion ...
0 votes
0 answers
94 views

Dominating Poisson with parameter depending on a Bernoulli

Fix $\mu >0$ and take $\lambda \geq 0$. Let $B_p \sim \text{Ber}(p)$ with $p = \exp(-\mu - \frac{\lambda}2) $. Define the random variable $Y$ which is Poisson with parameter depending on the value ...
1 vote
1 answer
352 views

Double Markovity

Suppose we have a double Markov relation for three random variables $X$, $Y$ and $W$ as follows $$X\to W\to Y,$$ and $$X\to Y\to W.$$ How to prove that there exist functions $f$ and $g$ such that $$...
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 ...
1 vote
1 answer
278 views

Laplace transform of : $t^{\gamma-1} F(\alpha,\beta,\delta,t)$, where $F$ is the Gauss' hypergeometric function

What is the Laplace transform of : $t^{\gamma-1} F(\alpha,\beta,\delta,t)$, where $\gamma >0 $ and $F$ is the Gauss' hypergeometric function. Thanks!
2 votes
1 answer
663 views

Using a probability measure, P, defined on uncountable sets to construct a probability measure, P' on singleton P-null sets

Let $\Omega$ be an uncountable set and $(\Omega, \mathcal{F},P)$ be a probability space built on $\Omega$. Let $S \subset \{A \in \mathcal{F}: P(A)=0,\;|A|=1\}:|S|<\infty$ be a finite subset of ...