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21 votes
7 answers
2k views

Identities and inequalities in analysis and probability

Usually, at the heart of a good limit theorem in probability theory is at least one good inequality – because, in applications, a topological neighborhood is usually defined by inequalities. Of course,...
17 votes
2 answers
5k views

Positive-Definite Functions and Fourier Transforms

Bochner's theorem states that a positive definite function is the Fourier transform of a finite Borel measure. As well, an easy converse of this is that a Fourier transform must be positive definite. ...
7 votes
2 answers
988 views

Missing mass conjecture

Let $n,t$ be positive integers and $p_1,p_2,\ldots,p_n$ positive numbers summing to 1. Conjecture: $$ \sum_{i=1}^n p_i (1-p_i)^t \le \frac{n(1-1/n)^n}{t} $$ always holds. The motivation comes from my ...
0 votes
1 answer
59 views

Given positive $\epsilon$ and $c$, find a density $\phi$ such that $t\phi(\epsilon/t) \ge c \|\phi'\|_\infty$ for all positive $t$

A nice density (on $\mathbb R$) is function $\phi:\mathbb R \to \mathbb R$ such that (1) $\phi(x) \ge 0$ for all $x \in \mathbb R$, (2) $\int_{-\infty}^\infty \phi(x) \mathrm{d}x = 1$, (3) $\phi$ is ...
2 votes
1 answer
374 views

Bakry-Emery criterion

The most common use of the Bakry-Emery criterion is for the measure $\mu(x)=e^{-u(x)} /Z$ where $u \in \mathcal{C}^2$. I would like to ask for an application to a smaller class. Consider $u(x)=|x|^2 + ...
0 votes
1 answer
162 views

Iterated integrations by parts using the fractional Laplacian

Let $u \in C^\infty_c(\mathbb{\Omega})$ and $\varphi$ be an eigenfunction of the fractional Laplacian $(-\Delta)^s$ in $\Omega$ with eigenvalue $\lambda$. In what sense, if any, is it true that $$\...
2 votes
0 answers
176 views

Uniqueness for measure valued ode

Morning! Basically I'm working on a mean field scaling for some measure valued process (valued on $M_F(\mathbb{N})$). The limit turns up as a (deterministic) solution to a measure valued ODE. Let's ...
4 votes
1 answer
387 views

Asymptotic formula for fractional Laplacian

For the solution of $$ \begin{cases} \lambda u^\epsilon - \frac{\epsilon^2}{2} \Delta u^\epsilon = 0 &\text{in } \Omega \\ u^\epsilon=1 & \text{on } \partial \Omega \end{cases} $$ Varadhan ...
3 votes
0 answers
60 views

Existence, Uniqueness, and "ODE Characterization" of Minimizers for Variational Functionals from Large Deviations

A [classical result][1] of E. Lieb is that the functional $$\mathcal E(\phi):=\int_{\mathbb R^3}|\nabla\phi(x)|^2~dx-\int_{(\mathbb R^3)^2}\frac{|\phi(x)|^2|\phi(y)|^2}{|x-y|}~dx~dy$$ for $\phi\in W^1(...
1 vote
0 answers
60 views

A determinantal mixture of probability densities

I came up with this operation after playing with determinantal point processes: Given two probability densities $f,g$ defined on some measurable space with reference measure $\mu$, set $$ f\star g(x)...
5 votes
1 answer
170 views

Ratio of integrals with increasing dimension over Euclidean balls

Let $f_n(x)\geq0$ be any sequence of nonnegative $L^1(\mathbb{R}^n)$ functions such that $\int_{\mathbb{R}^{n}}f_n(x)dx=1$ where $dx$ is the Lebesgue measure on $\mathbb{R}^n$. For any $a>1,\...
6 votes
1 answer
575 views

Sub-Gaussian decay of convolution of $L^1$ function with Gaussian kernel

I think it might be helpful to put the new statement at the beginning and put the original post at the end. This new statement is more mathematically elegant. Let $f\geq0$ be in $L^1(\mathbb{R}^d)$ ...
4 votes
1 answer
1k views

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) + \...
5 votes
2 answers
631 views

Proving that a complicated function is eventually concave

I have a function $f:\mathbb{R}^+ \to \mathbb{R}^+$ that I want to prove is eventually concave - i.e. that there exists $\gamma _0 > 0$ such that for every $\gamma>\gamma_0$, $f(\gamma)$ is ...
4 votes
2 answers
1k views

Can we extract information about how fast a function decay from its Laplace transform?

My question is whether we can extract information about how fast an integrable function converges to zero by looking at the asymptotics of its Laplace transform. More concrete case, let $f:\mathbb{R} ...
3 votes
2 answers
1k views

A sufficient condition for a probability measure to have compact support

Consider a probability measure $\mu$ on, let's say, $\mathbb R$. Is there a necessary and sufficient condition so that $\mu$ has compact support $Supp(\mu)$ ? I agree this question is too vague, ...
6 votes
0 answers
411 views

Birth-Death Process associated with Orthogonal Polynomials

I have read in various places the following objects are related: orthogonal polynomials birth-death processes Lattice paths continued fractions After a lot of searching online, I found sketches ...
0 votes
0 answers
537 views

matrix Khintchine inequality

The usual Khintchine inequality says that if $\{\epsilon_n\}_{n = 1}^N$ are i.i.d. random variables with $\mathbb{P}(\epsilon_n = \pm 1) = \frac{1}{2}$ for each $n$ then \begin{equation*} \left( \...
18 votes
1 answer
3k views

Let a function f have all moments zero. What conditions force f to be identically zero?

Throughout, let $f$ be a Lebesgue measurable function (or continuous if you wish, but this is probably no easier). (Questions with distributions etc. are possible also but I want to keep things simple ...
1 vote
0 answers
100 views

Conditions on a measure to satisfy certain relation on moments.

Suppose we have a measure $\mu$ on $\mathbb R_+$ such that $\forall s>-1$ $t^s\in L^1(\mathrm d\mu(t))$. I'd like to impose some conditions on $\mu$ so the function $$f:p\to \frac{\int_0^\infty t^...
15 votes
2 answers
3k views

What do we actually know about logarithmic energy ?

In potential theory, the $\textit{logarithmic energy}$ of a Radon measure $\mu$ acting on $\mathbb{C}$ is defined by $$I(\mu)=\iint\log\frac{1}{|x-y|}\mu(dx)\mu(dy).$$ Of course it is not well ...
3 votes
0 answers
188 views

Does the existence of an asymtpotic density imply the existence of a measure on infinite dimensional (path) space?

This question is related to the following question Question about a Limit of Gaussian Integrals and how it relates to Path Integration (if at all)? A couple of authors have observed that composing a ...