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0 votes
0 answers
18 views

A question on Ibragimov's theorem on strong unimodality

I am not a mathematics student and unfortunately have some confusion about a (well-known) theorem about strong unimodality of distributions. First of all let me clarify some terminologies and then ask ...
-1 votes
0 answers
26 views

Estimate the value of the PDF $P(f)$ at the minimal $f_0$ of the random-variable function $f(\mathbf{x})$

Let $f(\mathbf{x})=f(x_1,x_2,\dotsc,x_N)$ with $N>2$ be a real and continuous function and $f(\mathbf{x})\ge f_0$ for any $\mathbf{x}\in\mathbb{R}^N$. Now let $x_1,x_2,\dotsc,x_N$ be the i.i.d. ...
1 vote
1 answer
54 views

Proving bound on expectation of likelihood ratio involving mixtures

Let $p$ be a Lebesgue density function with infinite support (i.e. $p(x)>0 \forall x\in \mathbb{R}$ and $\int p(x) dx = 1$). Moreover, assume that $p$ is even (i.e. $p(x) = p(-x)$) and unimodal: $p(...
2 votes
2 answers
215 views

How to analyze the value of convergence of functions of random matrices?

Consider a random i.i.d matrix $\mathbf{A}_{m\times n}$ with entries generated from a complex Gaussian distribution with zero mean and unit variance. I am interested in the large dimension analysis of ...
5 votes
1 answer
240 views

Asymptotic distribution of the extreme, standardized order statistics of uniform distribution?

Let $\{U_{k, n}\}_{k=1}^n$, denote the order statistics of a sample of $n$ iid uniform $[0, 1]$ variates. Note that, marginally $U_{k, n}$ is distributed $\mathrm{Beta}(k, n+1 -k)$. Therefore, let us ...
2 votes
1 answer
1k views

Components of a Gram matrix and its eigenvalues

The Gram Matrix is defined as $$\sum_{i=1}^n X_iX_i^T,$$ where $X_i$ is drawn from the unit sphere based according to some continuous distribution (Relation between eigenvalues and the gram matrix for ...
12 votes
1 answer
628 views

A function with unexpectedly simple Legendre transformation

Let $I(x) = \frac{1}{2\pi} \int_{-2}^2 \sqrt{4-y^2}\ln|x-y|dy$. Then $I(x)$ is a concave function and \begin{equation} I(x)= \begin{cases} \frac{1}{4}x^2-\frac{1}{2}, &\text{if } |x|\leq2 \\ \...
-3 votes
0 answers
136 views

Approximation on Dirichlet's arithmetic progression by means of central limit theorem

In this video lecture on Number theory over function fields taught by Will Sawin is presented a 'conceptional' reason for error estimation $\#\{p \in \Bbb P: p =a \ \text{mod} \ N, p <x \} =\frac{1}...
1 vote
0 answers
91 views

How to optimize parametric information-theoretic bounds?

I am faced with an information-theoretic upper bound, such as \begin{align} \sqrt{\alpha'}2^{I_\alpha(X;Y)}, \end{align} where $I_\alpha(X;Y)$ is the Rényi mutual information with parameter $\alpha>...
0 votes
2 answers
126 views

Unique coupling

Let $X$ be a Polish metric space, and let $\mu,\nu$ be two Borel probability measures on $X$, when is the product measure the only coupling of $\mu$ and $\nu$. More formally, let $$\Gamma(\mu,\nu):=\{\...
7 votes
1 answer
763 views

Reference request: discretisation of probability measures on $\mathbb R^d$

Given a probability measures $\mu$ on $\mathbb R^d$ with finite first movement, i.e. $$\int_{\mathbb R^d}|x|\mu(dx)~~<~~+\infty.$$ My concern is to approximate $\mu$ some $\mu_n$ that is ...
1 vote
1 answer
197 views

Probability distribution on Python-dictionary-like objects?

I would like to examine information-theoretical properties of random variables that take as values objects which are akin to dictionaries in the Python programing language. That is, each sample of the ...
2 votes
1 answer
1k views

Concentration of the norm of subGaussian random vectors

I will use the same notation and definitions in High Dimensional Probability, by Roman Vershynin. I have a sub-Gaussian vector $y$, in $\mathbb{R}^n$ and sub-Gaussian norm $C$ non dependent on $n$. I ...
0 votes
1 answer
51 views

Reconstruction of law of diffusion process from call option values

Let $X_{\cdot}$ be a $1$-dimensional diffusion process. If I know the value of the $$\big\{\mathbb{E}[\max\{X_t,c\}\big| X_0 =x\big]:\, c\in \mathbb{R} \text{ and } \,\, t\in (0,1] \big\}.$$ Then, ...
2 votes
1 answer
119 views

Deriving the distribution of standardized variables with empirical mean and standard deviation

I'm working with a set of independent and identically distributed random variables $\{ x_i \}_{i=1}^N$, where each $x_i$ follows a Gaussian distribution $P_X(x) = \mathcal{N}(x; \mu, \sigma^2)$. This ...
1 vote
1 answer
51 views

How do the total variation distances of the marginals relate to the total variation distance of the joint under independence?

Suppose there are two sets of random variables $X_1,...,X_n$ and $Y_1,...,Y_n$ with all the variables being defined over the same sample space, but not necessarily being identically distributed. Is ...
14 votes
1 answer
2k views

Expected survival time in Russian Roulette not monotone?

Let $a, n$ be positive integers with $a < n$. A revolver with $n$ chambers is loaded with $a$ bullets, where the distribution is uniform among all $\binom{n}{a}$ possible choices of $a$ objects ...
2 votes
0 answers
43 views

A distribution defined via an ODE for its Laplace trnsform

Fix a parameter $0 < c < \infty$. As the solution to a certain problem, there is a probability density function $f_c(t)$ on $0 < t < \infty$ with mean $1$ and whose Laplace transform $L(\...
0 votes
1 answer
552 views

Hypothesis testing for not identically distributed random variables conditioned on the outcome of a subset

I encountered the following problem (I give more details of the problem at the end of the post) and I am trying to figure out the best way of performing a null hypothesis testing. I looked for similar ...
4 votes
2 answers
389 views

Gaussian mixtures are dense in total variation?

Let $M_{TV}(\mathbb{R}^d)$ denote the set of probability measures on $\mathbb{R}^d$ with finite total variation norm which are absolutely continuous with respect to the Lebesgue measure. By a Gaussian ...
0 votes
1 answer
255 views

Sufficient conditions for decomposition of a bounded random variable into several small pieces

Given a random variable $X$ with $\mathsf{supp}\, X \subseteq [0,1]$ and $n$ positive numbers $h_1,\cdots,h_n$ with $\sum_{i=1}^n h_i=1$, I want to know some sufficient conditions for decomposing $X$ ...
3 votes
1 answer
436 views

Is the limit of compound Poisson random variables a compound Poisson r.v.?

Let $Y$ be an infinitely divisible (I.D.) random variable. Let $\nu$ be any measure not necessarily finite: $\nu(\mathbb R)\leq \infty$. Suppose that $Y \sim (0, \nu,0)_0$ according to the notation on ...
1 vote
0 answers
67 views

A functional equation coming from a distribution function

Currently, I am working on a random series as follows. Let $\{Y_k\}$ be a sequence of i.i.d. Bernoulli random variables with expectation $p$. Then we define $$ S = \sum_{k=1}^\infty \prod_{\ell=1}^k 2^...
1 vote
1 answer
75 views

Probability of correctly guessing the maximum event probability of a multinomial distribution

I have a sample from multinomial distribution with $n$ trials, and $k=3$ options. I know that one of the event probabilities $p_i$ is larger than the two others (who are equal). I'm trying to guess ...
9 votes
0 answers
242 views

Does there exist such a probability distribution?

Does there exist a probability distribution over the set $\{(x,y,z)\in[0,1]^3\colon x+y+z=3/2\}$ whose projection on each of the three coordinate axes is the uniform distribution over the interval $[0,...
5 votes
2 answers
528 views

Which coupling of uniform random variables maximises the essential infimum of the sum?

Recall that a coupling of probability measures $\mu_i$ is a set of random variables $X_i$ defined on the same probability space $\Omega$ such that $X_i \sim \mu_i$. Question: Let $\mu_1, \dots, \mu_n$ ...
2 votes
1 answer
156 views

Measurability of $X$ with respect to $Y$ in conditional probability distributions

Let $\pi$ be a probability measure on $\mathbb{R}^2$ with respective marginals $\mu$ and $\nu$ such that $(X,Y) \sim \pi$. Notation: $\pi_{X=x}$ be the conditional distribution of $Y$ given $X=x$, $\...
0 votes
1 answer
88 views

Exchanging the integral and infimum on the space of couplings

Let $\mu,\nu$ be probability measures on $\mathbb{R}^d$ with finite $p$-th moment ($p\in [1,\infty)$) and define the set of couplings by $\mathcal{C}(\mu,\nu)$ i.e. the set of probability measures on ...
3 votes
1 answer
195 views

Probability of sum of i.i.d. random variables being positive

Let $g,l \in (0,1)$ and $p\in [0,1]$. Let $X(k,1-p)$ be a random variable with binomial distribution with parameters $k$ and $1-p$. Let $Y(k,p)$ be a random variable with binomial distribution with ...
2 votes
0 answers
114 views

Echoes of the chord

Just a fun problem I thought of. A man is playing a magical pipe organ - every chord is an integer number of decibals (dB) loud. The softest chord is $0$ dB. Every chord of $N > 0$ dB creates a ...
0 votes
1 answer
86 views

Analytical approaches to approximate probability density functions of multivariate random functions

Given a random multivariate function $f(x, y, z)$, where $x, y, z$ are independent and identically distributed random variables with a probability distribution $\rho(X)$, I aim to approximate the ...
2 votes
0 answers
104 views

Existence of Dirac measures in the context of joint and marginal distributions

Let $\pi$ be the joint law of $(X, Y)$ with marginal distributions $\mu$ and $\nu$. We assume that we have: for all $A \in \mathcal{B}(\mathbb{R})$ such that $\mu(A) > 0$ $$ \nu\left(\{y \in \...
0 votes
0 answers
32 views

A question on Poisson approximation of number of secure rooks on a d-dimensional chessboard

This question was given in our first year undergraduate Probability I course. In $d$ dimensions the lattice points $i = (i_1, i_2, \cdots, i_d)$ where $1\leq i_j\leq n$ may be identified with the “...
15 votes
2 answers
6k views

Distribution of inverse of a random matrix

I got stuck into a problem and couldn't find its satisfactory answer anywhere. My question is simple. Suppose I have a fat random matrix (i,e., $R$ has dimensions $k\times d$ where $k<d$) whose ...
23 votes
2 answers
1k views

How large can $\mathbf{P}[X_1 + X_2 + X_3 < 2 X_4]$ get?

Let $\mu$ be a probability measure on $[0,\infty)$ and $X_1, \dots, X_4 \sim \mu$ independent. Then what can be said about the probability that $X_1 + X_2 + X_3 < 2 X_4$? More precisely, what is ...
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 ...
0 votes
1 answer
100 views

Expressing a multivariate normal distribution as a mixture of uniform distributions?

Context: Given a scalar normal distribution $X\sim \mathrm{N}(\mu, \sigma^2)$, it is possible to express $X$ as a mixture of uniform distributions over intervals (compound probability distributions), ...
2 votes
0 answers
76 views

Inequalities concerning cummulative distributions of binomials

For random variable $Z$, let $F_Z$ denote its cdf, i.e., $F_Z(t)=\mathbb{P}(Z\leq t)$. Let $X$ be a binomial distribution with parameters $(n,p)$ and $Y$ a binomial distribution with parameters $(m,p)$...
1 vote
1 answer
335 views

Finding a connection between two types of convergence

Please, help me find connections between two types of convergence: Let $\{X_n\}_{n\ge1}: (\Omega,F,P) \rightarrow (\mathbb{R},Bor)$ be a sequence of r.v., there are two convergences: 1) $X_n \...
3 votes
1 answer
116 views

Interpretations of analytic continuations of CDFs to complex probabilities

Are there notable cases where analytic continuations of cumulative distribution functions to complex arguments have a meaningful interpretation or are otherwise useful? If a one dimensional CDF is ...
7 votes
2 answers
706 views

Poisson binomial conjecture

Let $X_i\in\{0,1\}$ be mutually independent and distributed according to $\mathrm{Bernoulli}(p_i)$ and similarly, $Y_i\sim\mathrm{Bernoulli}(q_i)$, for some parameters $p,q\in[0,1]^n$. Put $X:=\sum_{i=...
2 votes
1 answer
263 views

The best probability distribution for the game of Number Master

In the game of Number Master, the player controls a number starting with $1$ and hits the other numbers one by one on the road. If the player hits a number smaller or equal to the current controlling ...
1 vote
1 answer
125 views

Approximation of two densities with a single transformation

Let $p_1$ and $p_2$ be two probability densities and $X_i\sim N(\mu_i,\Sigma_i)$. Write $w(X)\sim p$ if the law of the random variable $w(X)$ has a density equal to $p$. For general densities $p_i$, ...
8 votes
3 answers
8k views

Upper bound total variation by Wasserstein distance for continuous distance

I am reading the survey of the relationships between metrics of distributions (see https://arxiv.org/pdf/math/0209021.pdf for the paper). The general results show that for general distributions, we ...
0 votes
0 answers
159 views

How to express the expectation and variance of a truncated binomial distribution without summation?

Given a binomial distribution with parameters $ n $ and $ p $, where $ n $ is an odd integer greater than or equal to 3, I am interested in the truncated binomial distribution where we truncate at $ k ...
20 votes
1 answer
2k views

How rich is the richest person in a society satisfying the Pareto principle?

The Pareto Principle roughly states that in many societies, the top 20% of people hold over 80% of the wealth. Suppose we had a society that satisfied this principle in every stratum of society - how ...
0 votes
0 answers
24 views

Is there a log-concave distribution not spherical symmetric s.t $ \langle X, \theta \rangle$ is almost normal for all directions $\theta$?

Klartag's results indicate that for a log-concave isotropic random vector, with high probability over $\theta$, $\langle X, \theta \rangle$ is close to a normal distribution. It is known that for the ...
3 votes
0 answers
81 views

Can we remove the restriction on a parameter in Talagrand concentration inequality?

Recently I am trying to use Talagrand concentration inequality to do something on graphs. I find a version from the book of Molloy and Reed ''Graph Colouring and Probabilistics Method''. I attached a ...
0 votes
1 answer
164 views

Which coupling minimises the following cyclic sum?

We recall that a coupling of probability distributions $\mu_1, \dots, \mu_n$ on $\mathbb R$ is a set of random variables $X_1, \dots, X_n$ defined on the same probability space such that $X_i$ is ...
1 vote
2 answers
368 views

Use Importance sampling for multimodal and multivariate distribution draws, how to choose proposal distribution?

I'm in trouble trying to generate samples following a particular distribution which is not numerically known perfectly. Let us consider a $R^n$ space provided with an orthonormal base $( e_{1},...,e_{...

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