All Questions
38 questions
26
votes
3
answers
11k
views
L1 distance between gaussian measures
L1 distance between gaussian measures: Definition
Let $P_1$ and $P_0$ be two gaussian measures on $\mathbb{R}^p$ with respective "mean,Variance" $m_1,C_1$ and $m_0,C_0$ (I assume matrices have full ...
10
votes
2
answers
2k
views
When is a space of measures a measurable space?
Let $X$ denote a measurable space, that is, a set equipped with a $\sigma$-algebra $\Sigma(X)$. Let $M(X)$ denote the space of real-valued measures over $X$. This is a vector space over the real ...
9
votes
2
answers
674
views
Small crown probabilities (and infinite dimensional margin assumption)
My question is:
How do I find sharp upper bounds on $P(|q|\leq \epsilon)$ uniformly over a set of gaussian polynomes $q$ of degree two.
Notations and definitions (to make the question rigorous)
Let ...
7
votes
2
answers
649
views
What's the standard name for sets of a given size with maximal probability (or a given probability and minimal size)?
The definition I'm going to give isn't quite the concept I really want, but it's a good approximation. I don't want to make the definition too technical and specific because if there's a standard name ...
7
votes
3
answers
995
views
Kolmogorov probability axioms without non-negativity condition
What is a minimal consistent modification of probability axioms to include negative values?
Is it enough to use a minimal modification of axioms obtained by
formal exclusion of non-negativity ...
6
votes
0
answers
388
views
Closedness of a set of measures, where conditional marginals are in closed $\varepsilon$-ball w.r.t. Wasserstein distance
Let $(E,d)$ be a bounded polish space (separable, complete metric space satisfying $\sup_{x,y\in E} d(x,y) < \infty$). By $\mathcal{P}(E)$ we denote the space of Borel probability measures on $E$ ...
5
votes
2
answers
6k
views
Difference between Beta Process and Dirichlet process
I'm trying to understand the definition of a Beta process, as given in the paper:
www.ece.duke.edu/~lcarin/Paisley_BP-FA_ICML.pdf
The problem is that from the definition it follows that every ...
5
votes
1
answer
363
views
Inverse marginal property of a collection of $\sigma$-algebras
In my paper "On the inverse best approximation property of systems of subspaces of a Hilbert space"
I introduced the Inverse marginal property (IMP) for a collection of $\sigma$-algebras.
Let $(\...
4
votes
2
answers
415
views
Effect of perturbing the atoms of a measure on the Wasserstein distance
Let $(X,d)$ be a metric space, $x_1,\ldots,x_N\in X$ and $x_1',\ldots,x_N'\in X$ be atoms, and $G=\sum_{i=1}^Np_i\delta_{x_i}$, $G'=\sum_{i=1}^Np_i'\delta_{x_i}$, and $G''=\sum_{i=1}^Np_i'\delta_{x_i'}...
4
votes
3
answers
3k
views
What is the name for a non-normalized distribution?
For some analysis work with probability distributions, I remember a common trick being to drop the "integrate to 1" requirement, so the set becomes closed under addition and is more convenient to work ...
4
votes
0
answers
867
views
For what sub-$\sigma$-algebra are these two measures equivalent?
In two statistics papers (linked inline below) I have come across two definitions of certain probability measures. I conjecture that for particular choices of the construction that they are ...
3
votes
3
answers
244
views
Example of a (strictly) proper scoring rule on a general measurable space?
Most of the literature on scoring rules that I know of deals with discrete measurable spaces, but in this paper by Gneiting and Raferty a very general definition of a scoring rule is given. I don't ...
3
votes
1
answer
416
views
Well-definedness of maximum likelihood estimation
Consider a family $\{\mu_\theta:\theta\in\Theta\}$ of probability measures on a measurable space $X$. Given $x\in X$, the maximum likelihood estimate is the value of $\theta$ which maximizes the ...
3
votes
1
answer
651
views
What conditions on a probability distribution defined by long-time averaging do I need to satisfy a central limit theorem?
For integer $n$, $1 \le n \le N$, consider the random variables
$X_n = \cos[t \omega_n]$
For any fixed $N$, we can take the mean
$Y_N = \frac{1}{N} \sum_{n=1}^N X_n$
and define a (cumulative) ...
3
votes
1
answer
940
views
What is the mathematical characterization of sufficient statistics of a given $\sigma$-dominated probability model?
Given a probability model $\mathcal{P}=\{P_{\theta},\theta \in \Theta \}$ dominated by a $\sigma$-finite measure $\lambda$ (e.g. Lebesgue measure) on a locally compact space $\cal{X}$ along with $\...
3
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Empirical estimator for total variation distance between two product distributions
Let $X = (X_1, X_2, \ldots , X_n)$ be an $n$-dimensional random variable, where each $X_i$ is a random variable on finite discrete set $S$. In addition, $X_i$ are independent of each other (but not ...
2
votes
2
answers
823
views
Kolmogorov-Smirnov distance and expectation
Let $P$ and $Q$ be two probability measures over $R^n$, with CDF denoted by $F_P,F_Q$, respectively (that is, $F_P(x)=P(\{x'\in R^n:x'\leq x\})$, where $\leq$ is taken componentwise. The Kolmogorov-...
2
votes
1
answer
235
views
Kolmogoroff condition for truncated random variables
Question summary. Does the Kolmogoroff condition $\sum_{n=1}^\infty\frac{\mathbb V Y_n}{n^2} < \infty$ hold for truncated random variables $Y_n := X_n \cdot 1_{\{X_n \le n\}}$ (see below for a more ...
2
votes
1
answer
170
views
Law of large numbers for a continuum of Bernoullis
Suppose I have a family of $n$ independent Bernoulli random variables described by a vector of parameters $(p_i)_{i=1}^n$. As it is well known, the number of successes within this family is a random ...
2
votes
1
answer
560
views
Covariance matrix as optimization problem solution?
I have seen the expectation of a random vector expressed as the solution to the optimization problem:
\begin{equation}
\mathbb{E}[X]=argmin_{v \in \mathbb{R}^n}\mathbb{E}[\|X-v\|_{l^2}^2](:= \int_{\...
2
votes
1
answer
557
views
Is this a closed set?
Let $\Theta$ and $X$ be two (Hausdorff) topological spaces. Let $\mathbb P : \Theta \to \Delta(X)$ be a "statistical model", i.e., a continuous function from parameter space $\Theta$ to the space of ...
2
votes
1
answer
3k
views
Empirical estimator fot the total variation distance on a finite space
I have two probability measures $p$ and $p'$ on a finite set $X$ which I do not know precisely, but which I can sample from. I would like to estimate their total variation (omitting multiplier $2$):
$$...
2
votes
1
answer
122
views
How is this bound for a Wasserstein contraction coefficient in this paper obtained?
I'm trying to understand the following conclusion from this paper (see below for the relevant paragraphs):
I'm not sure whether they really mean that it follows from the statements of Lemma 3.2 (...
2
votes
0
answers
98
views
Finding a general form of the density function when we have a four dimensional random variable
Consider a subject having time of the specific event $T_i$, which is a single sample from a
distribution $F_i$ with density $f_i$ and support
$[t_{\min},t_{\max}]$, for $i= 1,\ldots,n$. Let these ...
1
vote
1
answer
193
views
Compute limit of $\mathbb P(Y \le X_n)$ using limiting information on the sequence of random variables $X_n$
Let $Y$ be a symmetric random variable, $(X_n)_n$ be a sequence of nonnegative random variables, and set $p_n = \mathbb P(Y \le X_n)$. It is known from Slutsky's theorem that, if $c$ is a constant ...
1
vote
1
answer
189
views
If a Markov semigroup is eventually contractive, can we conclude that it admits a unique invariant measure?
Let $E$ be a separable $\mathbb R$-Banach space, $\rho$ be a complete separable metric on $E$, $\operatorname W_\rho$ denote the Wasserstein metric of order $1$ associated to $\rho$, $\mathcal M_1(E)$ ...
1
vote
1
answer
510
views
Total variation distance between multinomial laws
Can someone help me with the following problem:
Let $P_n$ and $Q_n$ two multinomial laws with parameters $(p,n)$ and $(q,n)$, where $p$ and $q$ are two probability measures on some measurable space ...
1
vote
1
answer
140
views
Does a sequence that verifies the assumptions of a square integrable martingale on some event need to be convergent on this event?
I came across this claim by reading some literature on stochastic approximation.
Let $(\Omega, \mathcal{A}, \mathbb{P}$) be a probability space, $(\mathcal{F}_n)$ a filtration on it. Let $(\epsilon_{n}...
1
vote
0
answers
61
views
Bound on $\int_0^1\sqrt{\log N_{[]}(\varepsilon,\mathcal{F},d)} \, d\varepsilon$ over the class of half-spaces $\mathcal{F}$ on $\mathbb{R}^d$?
For a class of functions $\mathcal{F}$ and a pair $f,g\in\mathcal{F}$ with $f\leq g$, the interval $[f,g]=\{h:f(x)\leq h(x)\leq g(x),\forall x\in\mathbb{R}^d\}$ is called a bracket for $\mathcal{F}$. ...
1
vote
1
answer
135
views
KL-divergence and sub-$\sigma$-algebras
I am trying to understand if the following claim is true:
Let $P$, $Q$ be probability measures on $\mathcal{X}$. For any $\sigma$-algebra $\mathcal{G}$, with countably many atoms (sets with $\...
1
vote
0
answers
56
views
Minimizing the rate of geometric ergodicity of a Metropolis-Hastings kernel depending on a parameter
Let $\tilde\kappa$ denote the transition kernel of the Markov chain generated by the Metropolis-Hastings algorithm with proposal kernel $\tilde Q$ and target distribution $\tilde\mu$.
I want to ...
1
vote
0
answers
227
views
Uniform Law Of Iterated Logarithm for VC classes
Kenneth Alexander proved a uniform Law Of Iterated logarithm for Vapnik-Chervonenkis classes in the article Probability Inequalities for Empirical Processes and a Law of the Iterated Logarithm (Ann. ...
0
votes
1
answer
116
views
Existence and uniqueness of a posterior distribution
I am wondering about the existence and uniqueness of a posterior distribution.
While Bayes' theorem gives the form of the posterior, perhaps there are pathological cases (over some weird probability ...
0
votes
1
answer
327
views
Deduce that a function is zero on interval $[0,M]$
I have been thinking about this for the last few days but I was not able to produce a definitive answer.
Take an integrable function $g$ that maps in $\mathbb{R}$ and with domain contained in $[0,M]$ (...
0
votes
1
answer
58
views
Good upper-bound for $\mathbb E_A[e^{-t\|A\|_2}]$, for $t\ge0$ and random m by n matrix with iid entries with law $N(0,1)$
Let $A$ be a random $m$-by-$n$ matrix with iid $N(0,1)$ entries, $m$ and $n$ large with $n/m \longrightarrow \alpha \in (0, 1)$ . Let $\|A\|_2$ be the largest singular value of $A$ (i.e the spectral ...
0
votes
0
answers
221
views
Distance between two sample quantiles
Let $X_1,\dots X_n$ be i.i.d. samples from an unknown distribution. We know the distribution has uniformly bounded probability density function $f(x)$. Let $1>\tau_1>\tau_2>0$ be two quantile ...
0
votes
0
answers
216
views
Hoeffding's lemma for unbounded r.v with bounded exponential map
Let $X$ be a real r.v with $E[e^{\lambda X}] < \infty $ for all $\lambda \in [-c,c]$.
Is it possible to get an Hoeffding's lemma like bound on $E[e^{\lambda(X-EX)}]$. That is, an upper bound: $$E[...
-2
votes
1
answer
347
views
Forms of multivariate CLT [closed]
I am looking for a good reference for differnt kinds of multivariate central limit theorems. I was wondering how far the i.i.d. condition of the standard multivariate clt can be relaxed, as in can the ...