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Questions tagged [pr.probability]

Theory and applications of probability and stochastic processes: e.g. central limit theorems, large deviations, stochastic differential equations, models from statistical mechanics, queuing theory.

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trivial map on $\sigma-$algebra $\mod{}0$ is trivial

Hi everyone! I am currently studying the basic theory of measurable actions and need the following result, which I am not able to prove myself. It is stated without a proof, so probably it should not ...
David Berman's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
354 views

Does the Orlicz space associated to $e^{x^2}-1$ have a name?

The Orlicz space associated to the convex function $e^{x^2}-1$ arises frequently in probabilistic problems (being in this space implies that a function has sub-Gaussian tails). Does this space have a ...
Mark Lewko's user avatar
11 votes
1 answer
642 views

Random walk origin return monotinicity

Consider a Markov chain on $\mathbb{Z}^d$ with transition kernel $P$ for adjacent vertices (non-diagonal). Essentially this is a $d$ dimensional random walk with the probability of a transition ...
Alex R.'s user avatar
  • 4,952
35 votes
5 answers
11k views

What mathematical treatment is there on the renormalization group flow in a space of Lagrangians?

What mathematical treatment is there on the renormalization group flow in a space of Lagrangians?
user4's user avatar
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8 votes
8 answers
5k views

probability and math puzzle books/references [closed]

Hi All, I'd like to solve some math puzzles, especially in the context of probability theory, but I'm open to other areas too. The kind of problems that does not require much knowledge of mathematics, ...
10 votes
2 answers
913 views

Random Trigonometric Polynomial

Let $t_{1},t_{2},\ldots, t_{n}$ be i.i.d. real Gaussian random variables of zero mean and variance one. Let $a_{1},a_{2},\ldots, a_{n}$ be positive and fixed real numbers and define the random ...
ght's user avatar
  • 3,626
1 vote
2 answers
515 views

Rate of decay of variance for a tensor product Markov process (100 pt bounty for good answer by 1800 EST Fri)

Let $Q$ be the generator of a well-behaved (not necessarily reversible) Markov process $X$ on $[n] = \{1,\dots,n\}$ and let $Q^\otimes = \sum_{m=1}^N I^{\otimes(m-1)} \otimes Q \otimes I^{\otimes(N-m)}...
Steve Huntsman's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
502 views

nonnegative series expansion of nonnegative functions

The title says it all! When using orthogonal series expansions like the Gram-Charlier expansion to approximate probability density function, a big problem (making this approach less usefull and less ...
kjetil b halvorsen's user avatar
5 votes
3 answers
898 views

Lower bound for Gaussian random vector with negative correlation

Let $X = (X_1,\ldots,X_n) \in \mathbb{R}^n$ be jointly Gaussian with mean $0$, covariance matrix: $Var(X_i) = 1$, $Cov(X_i, X_{i+1}) = -1/2$, and $Cov(X_i, X_j) = 0$ else. Let $\zeta \in \mathbb{R}^...
Ngoc Mai Tran's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
3k views

Generating Bernoulli Correlated Random Variables with Space Decaying Correlations

Hi, I have a set of N objects randomly distributed in a 2D physical space. Each object (i) generates a bernoulli random number (0 or 1) based on a marginal probability Pr(xi = 1) = p. These objects a ...
alandalusi's user avatar
5 votes
2 answers
491 views

Is independence meaningful for commutative $C^*$-algebras?

I don't know very much about spectral theory so probably the answer to my question has a basic reference which I would appreciate. Let's say I have two self-adjoint operators on a Hilbert space and ...
Phil Isett's user avatar
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12 votes
1 answer
2k views

Hardy spaces: analysis <---> martingales

Let $H^p$ be the Hardy space of analytic functions on the open unit disk $\mathbb{D}$: $f \in H^p$ if $f$ is analytic on $\mathbb{D}$ and $\sup_{r < 1} \int_0^{2\pi} |f(re^{i\theta})|^p d\theta <...
weakstar's user avatar
  • 943
5 votes
1 answer
688 views

Probability of having a bounded ratio of two types of balls in each of 'S' bins after random partitioning of a fixed number of balls

Let's say I have a bag with $A$ red balls, $B$ blue balls, and a total number of balls $N = A + B$. With uniform probability, and sampling without replacement from the $N$ balls, I fill an integer ...
2 votes
9 answers
2k views

Examples of amenable groups other than finite groups

I'm reading about amenable groups. What are explicit examples of nonabelian discrete amenable groups other than finite groups? Perhaps a group presentation or matrix representation would be useful.
1 vote
0 answers
134 views

Renewal function - duality

Let us consider a random walk $(S_n)_n$. One denotes the instants of records of $-S_n$ by $0=T_0 < T_1 < T_2 \cdots$. Then for all $k$ one sets: $H_k=-S_{T_k}$. Finally, one define $\tau$ as the ...
camomille's user avatar
  • 551
9 votes
4 answers
1k views

Characterization of the Poisson law

This semester, I teach an introduction to probability course tailored for students with no science background and so with very very little prerequisites. We started with the basics of analytic ...
Olivier's user avatar
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2 votes
1 answer
239 views

when is an element of $M_n(M)$ $\ast$-free from $M_n(\mathbb{C})$ for a $\ast$-non-commutative probability space $M$.

From "Lectures on the combinatorics of free probability" by Nica and Speicher we have a necessary sufficient criteria for an element of $M_n(M)$ being free from $M_n(\mathbb{C})$ for a non-commutative ...
Madhushree's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
397 views

Random Walk vs Branching process

1) Let us consider the set of all $N!$ permutations of the $N$ elements ${1, 2, . . . ,N}$. In the random state, each permutation of these elements occurs with probability 1/N!. The probability $Pm(N)$...
Mikhail Gaichenkov's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
292 views

Seeking the normalizing constant (or any references) for a distribution over a subset of positive definite martrices

I'm interested in a probability distribution over the set of positive definite matrices with unit diagonal elements. That is, and $X$ such that: $X \in S^{n+}, \forall_{i}X_{ii} = 1$ where $S^{n+}$ ...
Jeremy 's user avatar
  • 379
6 votes
10 answers
8k views

Best introduction to probability spaces, convergence, spectral analysis

I'm not sure if this stuff all falls under what most would just term "probability", but I'm researching applied macroeconomics and need to get a handle on the following concepts ASAP: probability ...
jefflovejapan's user avatar
2 votes
2 answers
2k views

Dependence between direction and magnitude of multivariate normal random vector

Suppose that $x\sim N(0, V)$ is $p$ dimensional with $V$ diagonal having elements $v_i^2$. Then \begin{align} f_x(x) & \propto \left(\prod_p v_i\right)^{-1} \exp\left(-\frac{1}{2}\sum_p \frac{x^...
JMS's user avatar
  • 269
1 vote
2 answers
242 views

Number of required trials to sample all possible states of a 'd'-sided loaded die

Let's say that I have a loaded $d$-sided die where the relative probabilities for the die landing on a particular side, $(p_1, ..., p_d)$, are known. How many times must I roll the die to, on average,...
user14324's user avatar
  • 309
11 votes
3 answers
2k views

Probability of unique elements in each of 'S' multisets sampled with uniform probability

Assume I have some set $P$ with $||P|| = N$ unique elements. I also have $S$ multisets, $(m_1, ..., m_S)$, of cardinality $L$, consisting of elements in $P$ chosen with uniform probability. We call ...
2 votes
1 answer
326 views

Intersection probability for 'N' fixed-length rods in one- or two-dimensions

Please consider the case where I have 'N' rods of length L (and width W) placed on a one- or two-dimensional surface with dimensions [0, A] in 1D, and [ [0, A], [0, B] ] in 2D. For the two-...
Rob Grey's user avatar
  • 599
1 vote
1 answer
1k views

Maximums of two correlated Gaussian processes

Hi, This question is motivated by a statistical genetics model. Let $(x_1,y_1)$, .., $(x_N,y_N), ... $ be i.i.d. bi-variate Gaussian random variables. The $x_i,y_i$'s are standard Gaussians, $x_i, ...
Or Zuk's user avatar
  • 560
7 votes
4 answers
4k views

Estimating the probability that one Poisson RV is larger than another

Let $X$ and $Y$ be Poisson random variables with means $\lambda$ and $1$, respectively. The difference of $X$ and $Y$ is a Skellam random variable, with probability density function $$\mathbb P(X - Y ...
Tom LaGatta's user avatar
  • 8,512
5 votes
3 answers
4k views

Integral over error function and normal distribution

Help me understand why $\int_{-\infty}^{\infty}\frac{1}{2}[1+\operatorname{erf}(\frac{\theta-x}{\sqrt{2q^2}})]\frac{1}{\sqrt{2\pi\sigma^2}}{\exp(-\frac{(x-\mu)^2}{2\sigma^2})}dx \approx \frac{1}{2}[...
Sklavit's user avatar
  • 153
1 vote
0 answers
105 views

estimating sample size

Say there is a web service where I can request information about a random item. For a request each item has an equal chance of being returned. If I keep requesting items and record the number of ...
hoju's user avatar
  • 177
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 ...
Aryeh Kontorovich's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
285 views

Connectivity in random points on a grid using a rope of fixed length.

This problem is a by product of another problem. I would like to restate this problem as a sort of a puzzle. Suppose we have a $l \times b$ grid. We select $k$ points on the grid randomly and ...
SpringCoder's user avatar
7 votes
1 answer
1k views

Infimum of the Dirichlet form for a tensor product

If $Q$ is the generator of a well-behaved continuous-time Markov process on a finite state space and $p$ is the invariant distribution, the corresponding Dirichlet form is $\mathcal{D}_Q(f) := \frac{1}...
Steve Huntsman's user avatar
4 votes
3 answers
422 views

probability that a random element of Z/NZ can be written as a subset sum of others

How could one calculate the probability that any element in $\mathbb{Z}/N\mathbb{Z}$ can be written as a subset sum of $n$ random elements in $\mathbb{Z}/N\mathbb{Z}$? In other words, say I pick $n$...
Jenn's user avatar
  • 41
5 votes
0 answers
506 views

Missing mass estimate

Let $S$ be a finite set with probability distribution $P$. Define the random variable $m_i$ to be the "missing mass" after seeing $i$ iid samples from $S$ under $P$. That is, $m_i$ is the total mass ...
Aryeh Kontorovich's user avatar
1 vote
4 answers
3k views

Will a random walk on [0, inf) tend to infinity? [closed]

Consider a random walk on [0, inf) where you start at 0. With probability p = 0.5, you increase by 1. With probability (1-p) = 0.5, you decrease by 1, but not below 0. As time goes to infinity, will ...
wjomlex's user avatar
  • 503
14 votes
2 answers
988 views

Properties of Some Random Graphs

Working in a problem the following family of graphs appears naturally. Consider the set $A_{n}=\{1,2,3,\ldots,n\}$ and let $\mathcal{C_{n}}$ be the set of all permutations of $A_{n}$ of order $n$ (...
ght's user avatar
  • 3,626
57 votes
4 answers
15k views

Connectivity of the Erdős–Rényi random graph

It is well-known that if $\omega=\omega(n)$ is any function such that $\omega \to \infty$ as $n \to \infty$, and if $p \ge (\log{n}+\omega) / n$ then the Erdős–Rényi random graph $G(n,p)$ is ...
Matthew Kahle's user avatar
19 votes
1 answer
701 views

Estimates for Symmetric Functions

Let $z_1,z_2,\ldots,z_n$ be i.i.d. random variables in the unit circle. Consider the polynomial $$ p(z)=\prod_{i=1}^{n}{(t-z_i)}=t^n+a_{1}t^{n-1}+\cdots+a_{n-2}t^2+a_{n-1}t+a_n $$ where the $a_i$ are ...
ght's user avatar
  • 3,626
10 votes
0 answers
780 views

Faa di Bruno and Free Probability?

It is possible to glean many combinatorial identities using Faa di Bruno’s formula for the coefficients of higher derivatives of a composite function. For many examples, see David Vella’s paper. The ...
Jon Bannon's user avatar
  • 7,067
3 votes
1 answer
673 views

The $\sigma > 0$ condition in the Central Limit Theorem

In the version of central limit theorem for strictly stationary but weakly dependent (for instance $\alpha$-mixing with fast decaying mixing coefficient) random variables $X_1, X_2, \cdots$, the ...
nivel's user avatar
  • 45
10 votes
1 answer
1k views

Talagrand's concentration inequality with limited independence

Is there a version of Talagrand's concentration inequality known when the variables have limited independence. More precisely, Let $F:\mathbb{R}^n \rightarrow \mathbb{R}$ be a $1$-Lipschitz convex ...
Anindya De's user avatar
7 votes
3 answers
1k views

Randomly contracting edges of a graph - expected number of vertices?

Let $G'$ be a graph obtained from $G$ after contracting each edge with probability $p$. Let $n = |V(G)|, e = |E(G)|$. I would like to compute (or at least obtain a lower bound) for $E[|V(G')|]$ in ...
Jernej's user avatar
  • 3,463
3 votes
2 answers
877 views

bound the tail distribution

Suppose that Z_1, ... , Z_n are binomial distributions with E[Z_i]=z_i. If (Z_i) are pairwise independent, then, It's well known that the Chebyshev inequality can bound the tail distributions. If (...
Jiapeng's user avatar
  • 57
2 votes
1 answer
1k views

Given a probability \mu, can we always find a transformation T s.t. \mu is T-invariant?

It is true that, under some conditions, given a measure-preserving transformation $T$, we can always construct a $T$-invariant probability. I am wondering whether we can do a converse. See Parry's ...
12 votes
4 answers
3k views

What structure is needed to define a Gaussian distribution on a given space?

In most textbooks, the normal distribution is defined on $\mathbb{R}^n$ by specifying its probability density function. This works perfectly well, but it isn't really amenable to generalisation. I'm ...
Simon Lyons's user avatar
  • 1,666
13 votes
4 answers
5k views

Gaussian processes, sample paths and associated Hilbert space.

Given a Gaussian process on some topological space $T$, with a continuous covariance kernel $C(\cdot,\cdot)\colon T\times T\to R$, we can associate a Hilbert space, which is the reproducing kernel ...
kjetil b halvorsen's user avatar
4 votes
3 answers
439 views

Probability estimates for "beans & boxes"

From a discussion with some friends, this apparently easy problem has come out; I decided to post it here, because I believe that the answer is non-trivial and the maths beneath interesting. Partial ...
alezok's user avatar
  • 418
5 votes
2 answers
3k views

Probability of return at step $n$ of a Random walk to its starting vertex

Hi, given a discrete simple Random walk on a symmetric graph, what is known about the probability of the random walker to return to a starting site at step $n$? Specifically, I am interested in the ...
Chris's user avatar
  • 65
16 votes
3 answers
2k views

Expected Degree of a vertex in Delaunay Triangulations

Assume you have a Poisson point process of constant intensity $\lambda$ in the Euclidean plane. From this point process we construct the Delaunay triangulation (or the Voronoi tessellation for that ...
ght's user avatar
  • 3,626
19 votes
1 answer
1k views

Horst Knörrer's Permutation Cancellation Problem

The Problem: The following question of Horst Knörrer is a sort of toy problem coming from mathematical physics. Let $x_1, x_2, \dots, x_n$ and $y_1,y_2,\dots, y_n$ be two sets of real numbers. We ...
Gil Kalai's user avatar
  • 24.7k
11 votes
1 answer
1k views

Question about a Limit of Gaussian Integrals and how it relates to Path Integration (if at all)?

I have come across a limit of Gaussian integrals in the literature and am wondering if this is a well known result. The background for this problem comes from the composition of Brownian motion and ...
jzadeh's user avatar
  • 265

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