All Questions
Tagged with pr.probability convexity
42 questions
0
votes
0
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18
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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 ...
- 51
3
votes
0
answers
77
views
Is the norm of first or second level of of signature a convex function?
I understand this is not a research level question but I really want to know, would anyone please help.
This question is related to the signatures that arises in rough path theory. https://en....
- 495
4
votes
1
answer
320
views
Sub-Gaussian random variables and convex ordering
Suppose that $X$ is a $1$-sub-Gaussian real-valued random variable, i.e. for all $t \in \mathbf{R}$, it holds that $\log \mathbf{E} \exp \left( t X \right) \leqslant \frac{1}{2} t^2 $.
Does there ...
- 801
2
votes
0
answers
164
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Log Sobolev inequality for log concave perturbations of uniform measure
Suppose $\Omega$ is a convex bounded open set of $\mathbb{R}^n$ (I would be happy with just $\Omega$ as the $n$-dimensional cube). Let $\mu$ be the uniform measure on $\Omega$ and consider the ...
- 873
4
votes
1
answer
424
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An exercise on log-concave random variable on the real line
Let $X$ be a real random variable with log-concave density $f$. Assume that $E(X) =0$ and $E(X^2)=1$.
Show that there is a universal (independent of $X$) constant $c>0$ such that:
$$P(X\in[-1/2;0])\...
- 245
5
votes
2
answers
203
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Convex hull of bivariate normal random points
Let $n > 1$, and $p_1, \ldots, p_n \in \mathbb{R}^2$ be iid random points following a bivariate normal distribution (doesn't matter which one), and let $X_n$ be the number of vertices of convex ...
- 5,590
8
votes
1
answer
697
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Is the square root of the Kullback-Leibler divergence a convex map?
$\newcommand{\KL}{\operatorname{KL}}$Let $X$ be a Polish metric space and $P(X)$ the space of probability measures on $X$. Given $\mu, \nu\in P(X)$, recall that
$$\KL(\mu\parallel\nu) = \begin{cases}\...
- 345
1
vote
0
answers
121
views
Relation satisfied by a Gaussian random variable
I want to prove the following relation for $X\sim \mathcal{N}(0,1)$, $x\in \mathbb{R}$ and $f(x)=\mathbb{E}[\max(X,x)]$:
$$f(\frac{f(x+1)+f(x-1)}{2})\leq \frac{f(f(x)-1)+f(f(x)+1)}{2}$$
It seems that ...
- 171
0
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1
answer
150
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Expectation of random matrix
Assume $Q$ is a positive definite random matrix such that $0 < \lambda_{\min}(Q)....\leq \lambda_{\max}(Q) \leq 1$ holds. I want to show that
\begin{align}
E\left[\frac{\lambda_{\min}(Q)}{\lambda_{\...
- 3
2
votes
1
answer
391
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Lower bound on $L^2$ norm of a strongly convex function
Let $f\colon[0, 1] \to \mathbb R$ be an $m$-strongly convex function and $\mu$ be a probability measure on $[0,1].$ For any $t<1$, the goal is to find a lower bound on $\int_{0}^t f^2(x) d\mu(x)$ ...
- 23
1
vote
0
answers
36
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Does a total preorder on lotteries that preserves countable mixtures preserve arbitrary mixtures?
Let $X$ be a countable set. A lottery on $X$ is a function $\lambda: X \to [0,1]$ such that $\sum_x \lambda(x) = 1$. Let $\Delta X$ be the set of lotteries on $X$.
A total preorder $\preceq$ on $\...
- 869
0
votes
1
answer
339
views
Expectations, double integrals and Jensen's inequality
$\def\anonfunc#1{#1(\cdot)}$Consider two random variables distributed $v\sim \anonfunc G$ and
$c \sim \anonfunc F$ with pdfs $\anonfunc g$ and $\anonfunc f$. Let the supports of $c$ and
$v$ be $[x,y]$....
- 13
4
votes
1
answer
115
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What is the probability of an empty convex $k$-gon among many given points?
Given a finite number of points in the plane in general position, call a convex subset empty if its hull doesn't contain any other of the points.
For a big number $n$ of randomly distributed ...
- 13.4k
4
votes
1
answer
1k
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Simple proof of Prékopa's Theorem: log-concavity is preserved by marginalization
The following result is well-known:
Suppose that $H(x,y)$ is a log-concave distribution for $(x,y) \in \mathbb R^{m \times n}$ so that by definition we have
$$H \left( (1 - \lambda)(x_1,y_1) + \...
- 536
1
vote
0
answers
676
views
Are Outer Products of Sub-Gaussian Vectors Sub-Exponential?
$\newcommand\xx{\mathbf{x}}\newcommand\yy{\mathbf{y}}\newcommand\A{\mathbf{A}}\newcommand\aalpha{\boldsymbol{\alpha}}\newcommand\bbeta{\boldsymbol{\beta}}\newcommand\E{\mathbb{E}}\newcommand\inner[1]{\...
- 153
1
vote
1
answer
649
views
Extreme Points of a set of distributions with moment and/or support constraint
Let $X$ be a random variable with the distribution $F$ (cdf).
What are the extreme points of the sets of the form:
\begin{align}
P_1&=\left\{ F: \int |x|^k dF\le c \right\},\\
P_2&=\left\{ F:...
- 671
1
vote
1
answer
363
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Question on Jensen's inequality
Let $(X,Y)$ be a martingale on $\mathbb R$ and $\psi:\mathbb R\to\mathbb R$ be a convex function. Then it follows by Jensen's inequality that
$$\mathbb E[\psi(X)]~~\le~~ \mathbb E[\psi(Y)]$$
and if ...
- 1,835
7
votes
1
answer
421
views
Convex representation of a measure
Let $\mathcal P(X)$ denote the space of all probability measure defined on a measurable space $X$. We canonically endow the former with its own measurability structure, generated by evaluation maps. ...
- 1,655
1
vote
0
answers
447
views
Largest possible variance for log-concave distributions on a bounded interval
Let $f$ be the density of a log-concave probability distribution on the interval $[0,1]$ (with respect to Lebesgue measure). To be concrete, suppose that $f(x) = \exp( - \varphi(x))$, for some convex ...
- 251
2
votes
1
answer
383
views
Is this a log-concave function?
Let $(a_k)$ be a log-concave positive decreasing sequence. Is $\sum\limits_{k=1}^n a_k(1-e^x)^{k-1}$ log-concave in $x<0$, for each natural $n$?
- 79
20
votes
2
answers
922
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A functional inequality about log-concave functions
Let $f,g$ be smooth even log-concave functions on $\mathbb{R}^{n}$, i.e.,$f=e^{-F(x)}, g=e^{-G(x)}$ for some even convex functions $F(x),G(x)$. Is it true that:
$$
\int_{\mathbb{R}^{n}} \langle \...
- 3,946
9
votes
1
answer
385
views
A Generalized Version of Maximal Correlation and Hypercontractivity of Conditional Expectation Operator
Given a pair of random variables $(X,Y)$ over a product space $\mathcal{X}\times \mathcal{Y}$, the maximal correlation coefficient is defined as
$$\rho_2(X;Y):=\sup\frac{\mathbb{E}[f(X)g(Y)]}{||f||_2||...
- 1,109
2
votes
0
answers
136
views
Fixed area, largest mass -- is there a name?
Let $x\in \mathbb{R}^n$ and let $s_k(x)$ denote the sum of the $k$ largest entries of $x$. The function $s_k(x)$ is well-known to be convex and is often used in optimization, such as
https://inst....
1
vote
0
answers
59
views
Conditions on probability measure that generates non-void random polytope
Let $C$ be a non-void compact convex set in $\mathbb{R}^d$, and $\nu$ a probability measure on $C$. Then under what conditions on $C$ and $\nu$, the following statement is true: If $X_1,\cdots,X_{d+1}$...
- 599
6
votes
1
answer
843
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Orlicz Norm and A result on expectation
I am reading paper which is mainly about Dobrushin's contraction coefficient and its generalization. In page 27, the following is defined:
Consider arbitrary, non-negative, convex function $\psi:\...
- 1,109
7
votes
1
answer
2k
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Convex conjugate of relative entropy
The convex conjugate of a function, say, $f:X\to \mathbb{R}$ is a function $f^*:X^*\to \mathbb{R}$ defined as
$$f^*(x^*):=\sup_{x\in X} ~\langle x, x^*\rangle-f(x),$$ where $X^*$ is the topological ...
- 1,109
7
votes
1
answer
444
views
Is an infinite-dimensional "Lebesgue measure" uniquely determined by a set of positive finite measure?
Let $\mu$ be a probability measure on a subset $C \subset \mathbb{R}^\infty$ of the space of sequences, and assume, for simplicity, that $C$ is closed and convex.
We say that $\mu$ admits shifts if ...
- 4,010
4
votes
1
answer
268
views
An inequality concerning convexity and expectation
Assume $f$ and $g$ are nonnegative with
$$\int_0^\infty f(x)dx=1=\int_0^\infty g(x)dx
$$
and
$$\int_0^\infty xf(x)dx<\infty > \int_0^\infty xg(x)dx
$$
Is it true for nonnegative numbers $p$, $q$ ...
- 24.8k
2
votes
0
answers
296
views
Lower convex envelope of a function involving entropy
Suppose two discrete random variables $X$ and $Y$ defined on finite sets $\mathcal{X}$ and $\mathcal{Y}$ are given and also suppose the conditional distribution $P_{Y|X}$ (i.e, channel) is fixed. We ...
- 1,109
2
votes
1
answer
3k
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Question about the log-det function
Suppose I have a diagonal $n \times n$ matrix $\Gamma$ with positive entries, and a fixed $n \times k$ matrix $P$ with $P^\intercal P = I$ (here, $k \leq n$). I'm interested in knowing whether the ...
- 108
3
votes
0
answers
126
views
Are there pathological examples of log-concave measures that admit no shifts?
Does there exist a random vector $X$ in, say, the space $\mathbb{R}^\infty$ of sequences that has the following properties?
The distribution of $X$ is log-concave, i.e. for every $n$ the joint ...
- 4,010
5
votes
2
answers
574
views
Non-asymptotic large deviations for a convex set
Let $X_1,\dots,X_n$ be $n$ i.i.d random variables taking values in a Polish vector space $\mathcal{X}$ and with (Borel) probability distribution $\mu$.
For any convex, compact $\Gamma \subset \...
- 591
7
votes
3
answers
2k
views
Convex hulls of families of probability measures
Let $X$ be a standard Borel space, so that the space of Borel probability measures on $X$ is also a standard Borel space. We denote it by $\mathcal P(X)$.
In this paper for any family of probability ...
- 1,655
0
votes
0
answers
155
views
Convexity of a Certain Set of Covariance Matrices
Hello,
My question is about a certain set of matrices being convex or not. I'll start with some preliminaries in order to define myself properly. Let $X_1,U,X_2$ be three zero-mean Gaussian random ...
- 155
8
votes
3
answers
431
views
Characterising semi-definite positiveness on vectors with non-negative entries
My problem is to characterise (or find useful information on) the cone $C$ of $N\times N$ matrices $M$ ($N\geq 1$) such that $$V^t M V\geq 0$$ for every vector $V $ with non-negative entries. Is this ...
- 1,352
12
votes
3
answers
3k
views
Area Enclosed by the Convex Hull of a Set of Random Points
Consider $n$ points generated randomly and uniformly on a unit square. What is the expected value of the area (as a function of $n$) enclosed by the convex hull of the set of points?
- 123
6
votes
1
answer
525
views
Wasserstein geometry of measures on manifolds related to the generalized Legendre transform and $d^2/2$-convexity
Let $(M,g)$ be a fixed closed Riemannian manifold, normalized to have volume 1. We'll write $d_M(x,y)$ for the (geodesic) distance between two points $x,y\in M$. I'm interested in the following class ...
- 7,197
2
votes
0
answers
366
views
Are affine continuous functions on Bauer sub-simplices of the probability measures given by integration over continuous functions?
Let $X$ be a compact (non-metrizable) Hausdorff space and $\mathcal{P}(X)$ the set of Radon probability measures with
weak-$*$ topology (weak topology induced by the continuous functions).
Consider a ...
- 888
2
votes
0
answers
240
views
Radon transform and Log-concavity
This question is related to (but different from) that of Darsh Ranjan.
Is there a characterization of the functions $f:\mathbb R^n\rightarrow\mathbb R_{\ge0}$ whose Radon transform $\hat f(\omega,t)$...
- 52.3k
1
vote
0
answers
466
views
Bounding point-wise maximum of the absolute difference of two convex functions
Let $\Delta: R \times R \rightarrow R_{+}$ be a positive and convex function (convex in, say, both the arguments) called the loss function.
Let $x \in R^d$. Moreover, let $H_1,...,H_r$ be sets of ...
- 11
5
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1
answer
781
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Does a log-concave function on a convex set extend continuously to the boundary?
Let $U$ be an open convex set in a locally convex space $X$, and let $f : U \to [0,1]$ be a log-concave function on $U$ (i.e., bounded and real-valued). Under what conditions does $f$ have a ...
- 8,512
4
votes
1
answer
363
views
Efficiently sampling points from an integer lattice.
Let $\mathcal{L}$ = {x$\in$ $N^n$ : ||x||$_1$ $\leq$ m} denote the set of integer points in the positive orthant of the $\ell_1$ ball of radius $m$, where $m < n$. For each $x \in \mathcal{L}$, let ...
- 41