All Questions
68 questions
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), ...
3
votes
0
answers
131
views
Matrix-Gaussian distributions
The point of this question is to ask for references on matrix-variate Gaussian distributions. But I will explain what I mean by a matrix-variate Gaussian with an example (the notion I have in mind is ...
- 193
3
votes
0
answers
354
views
Moments of normalized multivariate Gaussians (and Wick's/Isserlis theorems)
Suppose $x = \begin{bmatrix}x_1 \\ x_2\end{bmatrix}$ is distributed according to the real two-dimensional Gaussian with mean-$0$ and covariance matrix $\Sigma$. I am interested in a closed form for ...
- 193
2
votes
1
answer
281
views
Hermite polynomial and Gaussian random variable
The following formula is well known: $E[H_k(X,E[X])H_q(Y,E[Y])]=\delta_{kq}E[XY]^k$ for a joint Gaussian r.v. $(X, Y),$ $H_k$ are Hermite polynomiale.
Is there a generalization for this to a joint ...
- 573
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 ...
- 305
0
votes
1
answer
85
views
Conditioned on the expectation and covariance, is the total variation distance maximal for Gaussian distributions?
I want to find two distributions $p_1, p_2$, whose total variation distance is the largest between all pairs of distributions whose expectations $\mu_1, \mu_2\in \mathbb{R}^d$ and covariances $\...
- 265
0
votes
1
answer
69
views
Correlation for a Sum of random vectors from the sphere multiplied by matrices
Let $A_1,\dots,A_n\in \mathbb{R}^{d\times d}$ be some matrices. Suppose we sample $x_1,\dots,x_n,y\sim \mathcal{U}(\mathbb{S}^{d-1})$, where $\mathcal{U}(\mathbb{S}^{d-1})$ is the uniform distribution ...
- 155
1
vote
1
answer
208
views
Extreme confusion with the exact meaning of Gaussian measure with "translation-invariant" covariance
In physics literature, the covariance of a Gaussian measure $\mu$ on a function space is denoted as $C(x,y)$. Moreover, they say that if the covariance is translation-invariant, then actually $C(x,y)=\...
- 3,477
0
votes
2
answers
239
views
Computing the expectation of a quadratic matrix form involving Bernoulli and Gaussian distributed matrices
I am working with two random matrices, $Z$ and $H$:
$Z$ is an $n \times K$ matrix with entries sampled i.i.d. from a Bernoulli distribution: $Z_{ij} \sim \mathrm{Bernoulli}(p)$.
$H$ is a $K \times K$ ...
- 37
0
votes
1
answer
87
views
Is the $2$-point function translation invariant for general Gaussian meaures?
Let us consider the real Hilbert space $H:=L^2\bigl(\mathbb{R}^n, \mathbb{R}^n\bigr)$ and "any" centered Gaussian measure $d\mu$ on it.
Next, denote a generic element of $H$ by the column ...
- 3,477
0
votes
0
answers
46
views
Prove lower collinearity on the tails of Gaussian blob
Let us consider a $n$-dimensional Gaussian blob, i.e. a set of $N$ random vectors $\{\boldsymbol{X}^{(j)}\}_{j=1}^N$, with $n$ independent components, $X_i^{(j)}$, and such that $X_i^{(j)} \sim \...
- 305
2
votes
1
answer
213
views
Gaussian expectation restricted to a convex polytope
Let $X$ be a Gaussian vector in $\mathbb{R}^n$ with $\mathbb{E}[X]=0$ and $\mathbb{E}[X X^\intercal]=I_n$. Let $\mathbf{S}$ be a convex polytope in $\mathbb{R}^n$ defined as the intersection of $m$ $(...
- 21
0
votes
1
answer
61
views
What can we say about the order of convergence of a critical point of Gaussian mixture density to its limit when the parameter $h$ goes to $0?$
Density of Gaussian mixture with $n$ components is given by:
$$f(x):=C \sum_{i=1}^{n}e^{-\frac{1}{2}||\frac{x-x_i}{h}||^2}, x_i \in \mathbb{R}^d, h > 0$$
where $C$ is a normalization constant ...
- 1,467
0
votes
0
answers
128
views
When is the image of $T \colon \ell^2 \to \ell^2$ a Gaussian random variable?
In finite dimensions, if $T$ is a linear operator and $x$ is a (centered) Gaussian random variable, then $Tx$ is again a (centered) Gaussian random variable.
Now suppose that $x$ is a (say, centered) ...
- 420
0
votes
1
answer
115
views
Order of orthant probabilities in a prolate multinormal distribution
This is inspired by the negative answer to the conjecture in Which orthant probabilities are the largest? (For a multivariate normal distribution).
Suppose $X$ has the $k$-dimensional multivariate ...
- 4,219
2
votes
1
answer
188
views
Probability distribution of vectors obtained from Gram-Schmidt process on i.i.d. Gaussian vectors
Given $N$ vectors in $K$ dimensions that are independently and identically distributed according to a Gaussian distribution with mean $0$ and standard deviation equal to an identity matrix, what is ...
- 29
5
votes
3
answers
665
views
The relative error of approximating a binomial
Are there any good approximations for a binomial CDF that work well in terms of the relative error, as opposed to absolute? For the usual normal approximation, the absolute error is very well-studied ...
- 4,049
3
votes
3
answers
2k
views
How close are two Gaussian random variables?
Given two Gaussian random variables A and B with (mean, standard deviation) of (a,s) and (b,m) respectively, is there a scalar w in [0,1] that indicates how close A and B are?
- 159
8
votes
0
answers
422
views
Non-affine smooth transformation of Gaussian is Gaussian
Suppose $Z\sim N(0,1)$ (standard Gaussian) and $f: \mathbb{R} \to \mathbb{R}$ is a differentiable function such that $f(Z)\sim N(0,1)$. My question is whether there exists any such $f$ other than $f(x)...
- 399
4
votes
0
answers
2k
views
Show that $\mathbb{P}[ a V\le Z| V+Z]=\mathbb{P}[aV \ge Z| V+Z] \text{ a.s.} $ iff $V=\frac{1}{\sqrt{a}}Z'$ where $Z'$ is standard normal
Consider a pair of independent random variables $(V,Z)$ where $Z$ is standard normal. Now suppose that the following equality holds: for a given $a>0$
\begin{align}
\mathbb{P}[ a V\le Z| V+Z]=\...
- 671
1
vote
1
answer
613
views
Integral of the product of a gaussian pdf and cdf
I am trying to solve the integral of a gaussian cumulative distribution function and a gaussian probability function. On this site I have seen solutions of similar, less general integrals (e.g. ...
- 11
1
vote
1
answer
101
views
Estimating the average of two gaussians' mean with minimal squared error
This is a follow-up to my previous question.
Assume that $X\sim \mathcal N(\mu_1,\sigma_1^2)$ and $Y\sim \mathcal N(\mu_2,\sigma_2^2)$.
I want to estimate $\frac{\mu_1+\mu_2}{2}$ after observing $X,Y$....
- 618
2
votes
1
answer
872
views
Estimating the average of two gaussians' mean
Assume that $X\sim \mathcal N(\sigma_1,\mu_1)$ and $Y\sim \mathcal N(\sigma_2,\mu_2)$.
I want to estimate $\frac{\mu_1+\mu_2}{2}$ after observing $X,Y$.
In my setting, $\sigma_1,\sigma_2$ are known ...
- 618
2
votes
1
answer
124
views
Limiting behavior of $k^{th}$ order statistics of n non-i.i.d chi square random variables
This is related to one of my previous questions here.
Let $(Z_1, Z_2, \ldots, Z_n)\sim N(0, \Omega)$, where $\Omega = (1-\mu) I_{n\times n} + \mu \boldsymbol{1}_n\boldsymbol{1}_n^\top $. Here $\...
- 399
1
vote
1
answer
417
views
Obtaining the error term of binomial distribution's entropy from the differential entropy of a Gaussian distribution
It is known that the first order error term in the Shannon entropy formula for a binomial distribution is $1/n$ (for example, see the Wikipedia page Binomial distribution), where in the limit $n \to \...
user325283
1
vote
0
answers
176
views
Gaussian order statistics
Setup. Let $\alpha\in(0,1)$ fixed; and $\tau\in[0,1]$ (think of it very close to one).
Suppose $X_1,\dots,X_n$ are i.i.d. standard normal.
Let $Y_1,\dots,Y_n$ be another sequence of standard normals ...
- 11
5
votes
1
answer
225
views
Anti-concentration of Gaussian when conditioning on event
Let $v$ be a given vector with $\|v\|_{\Sigma^{-1}} \leq 1$, where $\Sigma$ is a positive semi-definite matrix and $\|v\|_{\Sigma^{-1}} = \sqrt{v^\top\Sigma v}$. Meanwhile, let $u$ be a random vector ...
- 1,127
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
2
votes
1
answer
1k
views
measure of a degenerate Gaussian distribution
I want to do computations with a degenerate Gaussian measure, but I do not know how to represent it
in a close form.
After starting with a Gaussian random variable and restricting it to a condition, I ...
- 23
6
votes
1
answer
237
views
Ordering preference for two zero mean Gaussian outcomes
Let $X\sim \mathcal{N}(0,1)$ be a standard Gaussian random variable. If we let $f_a(x)\triangleq\mathbb{E}[\max\{aX,x\}]$ for $a,x >0$, how to prove that $$f_a(f_b(1))<f_b(f_a(1))~~\text{for }0&...
- 171
23
votes
7
answers
5k
views
What makes Gaussian distributions special?
I'm looking for as many different arguments or derivations as possible that support the informal claim that Gaussian/Normal distributions are "the most fundamental" among all distributions.
...
0
votes
2
answers
874
views
Bounds for the sum of dependent gaussian random variables
Let $X_1,...,X_n$ be $n$ gaussian random variables $N(0,1)$ not necessarily independent or jointly correlated, $S=\sum_{i=1}^n w_i X_i$ be the weighted sum of these gaussian variables (because $(X_i)_{...
- 250
2
votes
3
answers
166
views
On the probability of the multivariate normal with fixed pairwise correlations being coordinate-wise non-negative
This problem itself, admittedly, is not a research problem; but rather an intermediate step I've encountered in my research.
Let $(X_i:1\le i\le N)$ be a multivariate normal random vector where i) ...
- 1,096
5
votes
2
answers
174
views
Integrability of Gaussian sums
Let $(X_1, \ldots, X_n)$ be a Gaussian vector, and $Z = \sum_{i=1}^n |X_i|$.
Since the map $x \mapsto e^{x^2}$, is convex, for any $t>0$
$$
e^{tZ^2} \, = \, e^{t \big(\sum_{i=1}^n |X_i| \big)^2}...
- 51
1
vote
1
answer
2k
views
Convolution of two Gaussian mixture model
Suppose I have two independent random variables $X$, $Y$, each modeled by the Gaussian mixture model (GMM). That is,
$$
f(x)=\sum _{k=1}^K \pi _k \mathcal{N}\left(x|\mu _k,\sigma _k\right)
$$
$$
g(y)=\...
- 41
0
votes
1
answer
808
views
Concentration of $\ell_2$ norm of a vector sampled from a distribution
Let $X=(X_1,\ldots,X_n)$, where $X_i \sim P_{p_i}(0,\frac{1}{\lambda})$ are iid, $P_{p_i}$ is sub gaussian distribution for $i^\text{th}$ element, and 0 and $1/\lambda$ are mean and variance.
I'm ...
- 61
1
vote
1
answer
169
views
Probability involving dependent random variables constructed from i.i.d. Gaussians
This is a problem I need to address for a certain computation in my research.
Let $Y_1,\dots,Y_n$ be a sequence of i.i.d. standard normal variables; and let $I\subset[0,+\infty)$ be an interval. In my ...
- 1,096
0
votes
1
answer
209
views
Distribution of the direction of Gaussian random variable
Let $X$ be a complex normal random variable. (Or, equivalently, a 2D real normal.) Is it possible to say anything useful about the distribution of the phase of $X$? Is it possible to do estimation on ...
- 1,069
5
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Explicit constant for Carbery–Wright inequality
The Carbery–Wright inequality is a seminal result about the anti-concentration of polynomials of Gaussian random variables.
See e.g. Meka, Nguyen, and Vu - Anti-concentration for polynomials of ...
- 111
6
votes
1
answer
264
views
Which orthant probabilities are the largest? (For a multivariate normal distribution)
I have a $k$-dimensional multivariate normal distribution $X∼N(0,\Sigma)$ with covariance matrix $\Sigma$. $\Sigma$ has two distinct eigenvalues, say $\lambda_1 > \lambda_2$, with orthogonal ...
2
votes
1
answer
759
views
History of the name "subexponential distribution" in probability
In probability theory, the term subexponential distribution has historically been used for a distribution whose CDF $F(x)$ satisfies the relation
$$
n(1-F(x)) \sim 1 - F^{*n}(x)
$$ for any $n \ge 1$ ...
- 1,124
1
vote
1
answer
798
views
Which distributions of $X$ and $Y$ yield a Gaussian $Z=XY$?
Let $Z=XY$ where $X$, $Y$ are random variables with support of non-trivial measure. For what distributions of $X$ and $Y$ can $Z$ be guaranteed to be Gaussian?
- 409
5
votes
1
answer
392
views
comparing Gaussian to order statistic of Gaussian
I would like to compute the probability of
$$\mathbb{P}[Y > \max(X_i)], Y\sim N(0, 1), X_i \sim N(0, \sigma_i)$$
All the random variables have zero mean, but the variances are different.
My ...
- 151
1
vote
1
answer
82
views
Expectation value of multilinear forms over independent Gaussian vectors
Let $A$ be a symmetric multilinear form on $\left(\mathbb{R}^d\right)^{\otimes n}\times \left(\mathbb{R}^d\right)^{\otimes n}$ and consider the random variable:
\begin{align*}
X=A(g_1,\ldots,g_n,g_1,\...
- 111
1
vote
1
answer
66
views
Comparing noisy truncated RV with noisy regular RV
For some reason, I'm having difficulties proving something that is intuitively simple.
Assuming I have two a random variable, $x$ and $x^{truncated}$, where $x^{truncated}$ is the truncated version of ...
- 183
3
votes
1
answer
694
views
Asymptotic bound on the total variation distance between a standard multivariate normal and a simple mixture
Let $P = N(\vec{0}, I^d)$ be a standard multivariate Gaussian distribution in $d$ dimensions. Let $Q$ be distributed the same as $P$, except that samples from $Q$ have one of their coordinates, chosen ...
- 167
13
votes
1
answer
10k
views
KL divergence and mixture of Gaussians
Do we have an exact formula to compute the KL divergence between 2 mixtures of Gaussians (i.e convex combinations of a finite number of Gaussian distributions)?
If not exactly known, are there good ...
- 2,246
2
votes
1
answer
64
views
Maximum Number of modes of $V=U+Z$ where $Z$ standard normal and $|U|\le a$
Let $f_V$ be a pdf of random variable $V$ where
\begin{align}
V=U+Z
\end{align}
and where $U$ and $Z$ are independent and $Z$ is Gaussian. Moreover, suppose that $|U| \le A$.
Can we find the upper ...
- 671
5
votes
1
answer
942
views
Moments of maximum of independent Gaussian random variables
Let $X = (X_1, \ldots, X_d) \in \mathbb{R}^d$ be a mean-zero Gaussian random vector with identity covariance matrix. Are there upper bounds for
$$E \left(\|X\|_{\infty}^k \right)$$ for $k=1, \ldots, ...
- 519
3
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Normal approximation to the pointwise/Hadamard/Schur product of two multivariate Gaussian/normal random variables
Let $X \sim \mathcal{N}\left( {{\mu _x},\sigma _x^2} \right)$ and $Y \sim \mathcal{N}\left( {{\mu _y},\sigma _y^2} \right)$ be two univariate and independent Gaussian/normal random variables and let $...
- 1,026