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James Propp
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Generalized density functions on the natural numbers

If $a_1,a_2,\dots$ are IID random bits, then with probability 1, the set of natural numbers $n$ such that $a_1+a_2+\dots+a_n \leq 0$ has lower density 0 and upper density 1, so it has no density in the ordinary sense. Still, I wonder if there is a principled way to generalize the manner in which we assign "densities" to subsets of the natural numbers in such a fashion that, with probability 1, the aforementioned set has generalized density 1/2 -- and, more generally, for every real $t$, the set of $n$ such that $(a_1+a_2+\dots+a_n)/\sqrt{n} \leq t$ has generalized density equal to the probability that the relevant Gaussian random variable has value less than $t$.

James Propp
  • 19.7k
  • 5
  • 55
  • 136