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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 ...
2 votes
1 answer
90 views

Asymptotics of $w^\top G^2 w$, where $w$ is a unit-vector, $G:=X^T(XX^T+t I_n)^{-1}X$, $t > 0$, and $X$ is an $n\times d$ gaussian random matrix

Let $X$ be an random $n \times d$ matrix with entries drawn iid from $N(0,1/d)$ and let $w$ be a unit-vector in $\mathbb R^d$. With $\lambda>0$, and define $G:=X^\top(XX^\top + \lambda I_n)^{-1}X$. ...
1 vote
1 answer
202 views

A problem related to stochastic ordering

Let $\boldsymbol{X} = (X_1,X_2)^{\rm T}\sim \mathcal{N}_2(\boldsymbol{\mu}, \mathrm{\Sigma})$, where \begin{eqnarray*} \boldsymbol{\mu} = (\mu_1, \mu_2)^{\rm T}& = &(\sqrt{\xi_1\xi_2/(\xi_1+\...
1 vote
1 answer
84 views

Jeffreys' priors as coefficients of a linear estimator

I asked the following question in a forum more suitable for statistics, but I didn't get any answer; I hope, someone could shed light on my question: I have three random variables, $X_1$, $X_2$, and $...
2 votes
1 answer
116 views

A question on the applicability Chebyshev inequality for sequence of random quantities

Let $(X_n)_n$ and $(Y_n)_n$ be two mutually independent sequences of random tensors (i.e scalars, vectors, matrices, etc.) defined on the same probability space, and let $f$ be a measurable function. ...
1 vote
1 answer
475 views

Convergence of quadratic form $y^T Q y$ where $y$ is a random iid sequence of length $n$ and $Q$ is an $n \times n$ random matrix independent of $y$

For each positive integer, let $Q_n=(q_{i,j})_{i,j \in [n]}$ be a random $n \times n$ psd matrix. In the limit $n \to \infty$, suppose the eigenvalues of this sequence of matrices are uniformly ...
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 $(\...
1 vote
1 answer
123 views

Stochastic ordering of absolute multivariate normal random variables

Let $X\sim\mathcal{N}(\boldsymbol{\mu}_1,\mathrm{\Sigma}_1)$ and $Y\sim\mathcal{N}(\boldsymbol{\mu}_2,\mathrm{\Sigma}_2)$. Then it is know that $\mathbb{P}(X>\boldsymbol{t})\leq\mathbb{P}(Y>\...
4 votes
0 answers
656 views

Eigenvalues of Matérn covariance function

Recall that Matérn covariance function $C_\nu(d)$ is defined as $$ C_\nu(d)=\sigma^2\frac{2^{1-\nu}}{\Gamma(\nu)}\left(\sqrt{2\nu}\frac{d}{\rho}\right)^\nu K_\nu\left(\sqrt{2\nu}\frac{d}{\rho}\right), ...
3 votes
1 answer
318 views

Divergence-free Gaussian vector field with given mean magnitude and correlation function

My general question is how to construct an isotropic random vector field $\vec f: \mathbb{R}^3 \to \mathbb{R}^3$ with a given mean magnitude $\mathbb{E}[\|\vec f(\vec x)\|]=\mu$ and with vector ...
2 votes
1 answer
268 views

Monotonicity of the Hellinger integral/distance

Let $p$ and $q$ be probability densities on $\mathbb R$, with respect to the Lebesgue measure $dx$. The corresponding Hellinger integral and distance are $H(p,q):=\int_{\mathbb R}\sqrt{pq}\,dx$ and $\...
2 votes
1 answer
187 views

Compute the limit of trace of inverse of square of rank-1 perturbation of Wishart matrix

Let $a \ge 0$, $b,c>0$ be fixed constants, and let $X$ be an $m \times d$ random matrix with entries drawn iid from $N(0,1/d)$. Consider the random psd matrix $S := a 1_m 1_m^\top + b XX^\top + c ...
1 vote
0 answers
45 views

Is there a local limit theorem for functions of Gaussian random vectors?

Assume that $\sqrt{n} (\boldsymbol{Z}_n - \boldsymbol{\mu}) \stackrel{\mathcal{D}}{\longrightarrow} \mathcal{N}(\boldsymbol{0},\Sigma)$, as $n\to \infty$, for some $\boldsymbol{\mu}\in \mathbb{R}^d$ ...
3 votes
1 answer
170 views

Donsker class and law of the iterated logarithm

Let $P$ be a probability measure on a measurable space $(E, \mathcal {E})$, and let $\mathcal {F}$ be a countable collection of measurable functions $f : E \to \mathbb {R}$ which is a Donsker class ...
0 votes
2 answers
341 views

Conditions for existence of a distribution with full support

Consider a $6\times 1$ continuous random vector $$ \eta\equiv (\eta_1,\eta_2,..., \eta_6) $$ satisfying the following property: $$ \underbrace{\begin{pmatrix} \eta_1\\ \eta_2\\ \eta_3 \end{pmatrix}}_{\...
0 votes
1 answer
142 views

Covering number of the conditional distribution function

Suppose $Y$ is a random variable in $\mathbb{R}^d$, and we want to find the covering number \begin{equation*} \mathcal{F} = \big\{ F_{Y|W} (y | W) : y \in \mathbb{R}^d \big\} \end{equation*} where ...
0 votes
0 answers
95 views

Empirical estimation of Brenier map from data

Let $f:\mathbb R^d \to \mathbb R$ be a "nice" (say, continuous) function define $A = A_f := \{x \in \mathbb R^d \mid f(x) \ge 0\}$ and $B =B_f:= \{x \in \mathbb R^d \mid f(x) \le 0\}$, and ...
0 votes
2 answers
534 views

Wasserstein distance between $N(0,1/d)$ and the marginal distribution of $x_1$ when $x=(x_1,\ldots,x_d)$ is uniform on the unit-sphere in $R^d$

Let $x=(x_1,\ldots,x_d)$ be uniformly distributed on the unit-sphere in $\mathbb R^d$. Question. What is a good upper-bound for Wasserstein distance between $N(0,1/d)$ and the marginal distribution ...
4 votes
5 answers
7k views

Proof of Bellman optimality equation for finite Markov Decision Processes

This question has already been posed in Cross Validated without receiving a correct formal answer, so I reformulate it here to gain attention of mathematicians. I am referring to chapter 3 of Sutton ...
40 votes
5 answers
5k views

"Entropy" proof of Brunn-Minkowski Inequality?

I read in an information theory textbook the Brunn-Minkowski inequality follows from the Entropy Power inequality. The first one says that if $A,B$ are convex polygons in $\mathbb{R}^d$, then $$ m(...
2 votes
1 answer
199 views

Do enough permutations of an initial set probably cover most permutations?

Fix $\alpha, \epsilon \in(0,1)$. Take $(S_n)_n$ to be any sequence of sets with each $S_n$ containing $ \lceil (n!)^\alpha\rceil$ permutations of $n$ elements. Also build another sequence of sets $(...
4 votes
0 answers
75 views

Marginalization of Wishart distribution

Consider the following Wishart distribution $$ f({\bf W}) = \frac{ |{\bf W}|^{(n-p-1)/2} \exp\big[-\frac{1}{2}\text{tr}({\bf V}^{-1}{\bf W} ) \big] }{2^{np/2} |{\bf V}| \Gamma_p(\frac{n}{2})} \tag{1} $...
1 vote
0 answers
198 views

Weak convergence of Cesaro means of weakly converging infinite-dimensional distribution

Suppose we have sequences of random variables $\{X_{n,m},n \in \mathbb{N}\}$ where the distribution of $(X_{n,m})_{n\in\mathbb{N}}$ converges weakly to an infinite-dimensional normal distribution $\...
2 votes
1 answer
256 views

About a mixture

Consider the following mixture model for a univariate density function $$ (1) \quad f(x)=\int_{(m, \sigma^2)\in D} g(x; m, \sigma^2) \mu(d(m, \sigma^2)) $$ where $D$ is a compact subset of $\mathbb{R}\...
0 votes
0 answers
202 views

$|\frac{1}{n}\sum_{i=1}^n X_i-E(X_1)|=O_P(\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}})$ under $E(|X_1|)<\infty$?

For i.i.d. random variables $X_1,\dots, X_n$ with $E(|X_1|)<\infty$. Does the following equation hold? $$ \left|\frac{1}{n}\sum_{i=1}^n X_i-E(X_1)\right|=O_P\left(\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}}\right) $$ I ...
6 votes
3 answers
601 views

What is the order of the constant $K$ in the multidimensional Dvoretzky-Kiefer-Wolfowitz inequality($Ke^{-c z}$)?

Let $F_n$ be the empirical distribution obtained from an i.i.d. sample of the distribution $F:R ^d \to [0, 1]$. Kiefer (1961) shows that the convergence of the empirical distribution is like $$ P\left(...
1 vote
1 answer
126 views

Probabilistic lower and upper-bounds for a certain random quartic form involving gaussian random matrices

Let $d,m \to \infty$ (integers) with $m/d \to \rho \in (0, \infty)$. Let $C$ be a $d \times d$ psd matrix with $trace(C)=\mathcal O(1)$, and let $w_1,\ldots,w_m$ be iid uniformly distributed on the ...
0 votes
1 answer
209 views

Factorisation of Gaussian random matrix into random Hermitian and correction factor

By the Bartlett decomposition, one has that for $k \leq n$ and $\mathbf{\Gamma}_{n\times k} \in \mathbb{R}^{n\times k}$ a standard Gaussian matrix with independent entries $$\mathbf{\Gamma}_{n\times k}...
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
489 views

Can we generalize the concept of "characters" in group theory via methods from statistics and probability theory?

$\DeclareMathOperator\Cov{Cov}$Motivation: If $G$ is a finite group and $\phi=X+iY: G\to \mathbb{T}$ is a character of $G$, then $\Cov(X,Y)=0$ where $X$, $Y$ are considered as two real random ...
2 votes
1 answer
97 views

Local limit theorems for circular/spherical distributions

Here are some of the classical density functions for spherical distributions (on the $\mathcal{S}^{d-1}$ sphere, living in the Euclidean space $\mathbb{R}^d$): $$\mathbf{x}\mapsto \frac{(\kappa/2)^{d/...
0 votes
1 answer
100 views

Independence between $X_{n-k:n}$ and $\sum\limits_i Y_{n-i:n}-Y_{n-k:n}$

If $(X_i,Y_i), i=1,\ldots,n,$ is i.i.d sample from the joint distribution $F$ and there is dependence between the two variables say $R$. Denote the order statistics for the two variables $X_{1:n},\...
0 votes
0 answers
330 views

Lower-bound smallest eigenvalue of covariance matrix of $y = f(Ax)$, for $x$ uniform on unit-sphere

Let $A=(a_1,\ldots,a_)$ be a fixed $k \times d$ matrix (with $d$ large), and $x$ be a random vector uniformly distributed on the unit-sphere in $\mathbb R^d$. Let $f:\mathbb R \to \mathbb R$ be a ...
6 votes
2 answers
333 views

Is there a way to reconstruct the convolution $(f * g)(x)$ of $f$ with a Gaussian $g$ from sampled values, $(f*g)(a), a \in A$?

Suppose that $f: \mathbb{R} \to \mathbb{C}$ is a function which has support in $[-1,1]$. Let $g = g_\sigma$ be a centered Gaussian with variance $\sigma^2$. Is there a way to reconstruct the ...
5 votes
1 answer
150 views

Kullback–Leibler chains

The following question was asked and then deleted by the post author: Let $P$ and $Q$ be two probability distributions defined over the same space, with $KL(P \parallel Q) < \infty$. For $\epsilon ...
1 vote
3 answers
269 views

Practical pseudorandom generators

It is known that existence of pseudorandom generators (PRGs) is equivalent to the existence of one-way functions. In turn, the latter is an open problem. I am curious if someone developed kind of &...
1 vote
0 answers
233 views

Variance-based localized Rademacher complexity for RKHS unit-ball

Let $\mathscr X$ be a compact subset of $\mathbb R^d$ (e.g the unit-sphere). Let $K: \mathscr X \times \mathscr X \to \mathbb R$ be a positive kernel function and let $\mathscr H_K$ be the induced ...
4 votes
2 answers
175 views

Almost independence of $x^\top a$ and $x^\top b$ for $x$ uniform on the sphere in $\mathbb R^d$ and $a,b \in \mathbb R^d$ with $a^\top b = 0$

Let $d$ be a large positive integer. Let $x$ be uniformly distributed on the unit-sphere in $\mathbb R^d$ and let $a$ and $b$ be perpendicular vectors in $\mathbb R^d$, i.e such that $a^\top b=0$. Let ...
0 votes
1 answer
160 views

Probability to cross an envelopp for 1D random walk?

Imagine we have an evolving sequence composed of 1 and -1 (ex: -1-11-111...) where the probability to get -1 or 1 is 1/2. n is the lengh of my sequence. I can make an analogy with random walk: let ...
1 vote
0 answers
75 views

Percentile interval Lemma

Let $\theta$ be a parameter and $\hat{\theta}$ the plug-in estimate, I need a proof of the following lemma, as given in [1], p. 173, in the form of a reference or of a direct argument: Percentile ...
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 $\...
-3 votes
1 answer
123 views

Are the first 4 statistical moments independent? [closed]

Are the first 4 statistical moments independent? Is there a mathematical demonstration that can show independence one from each other? Can the value of one moment influence the value of another? If so,...
2 votes
0 answers
172 views

Asymptotic lower and upper bounds for the eigenvalues of hadamard product $W \circ W$, where $W$ is a large Wishart matrix

Let $n$ and $d$ be large positive integers with $n,d \to \infty$ such that $n/d \to \gamma \in (0,\infty)$. Let $X$ be a random $n \times d$ random matrix with iid copies of log-concave isotropic ...
0 votes
0 answers
769 views

sub-exponential type upper bound on the Poisson probability

I posted this question on Math Stack Exchange, though I'm not satisfied with the answer I received. Question: For a Poisson random variable $Z$ with the parameter $\lambda,\,$ what would be a good ...
3 votes
1 answer
195 views

On estimating Covariance between a random variable and its non-linear transform

Let $X$ be a random variable taking values on the real line. Let $R(X) = max\{0, X\}$. Is it true that the covariance $Cov[X, R(X)] \ge 0$ irrespective of the distribution of $X$? Many experiments, as ...
7 votes
1 answer
1k views

reverse KL-divergence: Bregman or not?

I am having a little trouble getting my head around the two "directions" of the Kullback-Leibler divergence: Definition (Kullback-Leibler divergence) For discrete probability distributions $...
5 votes
3 answers
999 views

Why a random variable is better described by its cumulants than by its characteristic function?

It is a classical and well known problem that a random variable $X$ is not uniquely determined by its moments $\mathbb{E}(X_n)$. The moment problem is the problem of determining the probability ...
1 vote
1 answer
114 views

Upper bound on the ratio of Poisson CDFs [closed]

Suppose $X \sim Pois(\lambda)$. I'm interested in an upper bound on the ratio, $$\dfrac{P(X \leq n)}{P(X \leq n-1)}\,,\,\,\text{for $n=1,2,3,...$}$$ Observe that, the ratio is $>1$ & as $n \to \...
3 votes
2 answers
885 views

Expectation of product of random matrices

Let $X$ and $Y$ be independent random symmetric matrices. What can one say about $\mathbb{E} [X Y X Y]$ or $\mathrm{trace} \mathbb{E} [X Y X Y]$ in terms of properties of $X$ and $Y$? In particular, ...
0 votes
0 answers
171 views

A basic property of maximal correlation

Let $𝑋$ and $𝑌$ be random variables. Then the maximal correlation $\rho_{m}(X;Y)$ is defined as: $$\rho_{m}(X;Y):=\max_{f,g}\mathbb{E}[f(X)g(Y)],$$ where the maximization is taken over real-valued ...

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