English

Does the Convex Order Between the Distributions of Linear Functionals Imply the Convex Order Between the Probability Distributions Over $\mathbb R^d$?

Probability 2025-10-09 v3

Abstract

It is shown that the convex order between the distributions of linear functionals does not imply the convex order between the probability distributions over Rd\mathbb R^d if d2d\ge2. This stands in contrast with the well-known fact that any probability distribution in Rd\mathbb R^d, for any d1d\ge1, is determined by the corresponding distributions of linear functionals. By duality, it follows that, for any d2d\ge2, not all convex functions from Rd\mathbb R^d to R\mathbb R can be represented as the limits of sums i=1kgii\sum_{i=1}^k g_i\circ \ell_i of convex functions gig_i of linear functionals i\ell_i on Rd\mathbb R^d.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2510.04269,
  title  = {Does the Convex Order Between the Distributions of Linear Functionals Imply the Convex Order Between the Probability Distributions Over $\mathbb R^d$?},
  author = {Iosif Pinelis},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2510.04269},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

4 pages; to appear in The American Mathematical Monthly. Version 2: a typo is corrected. Version 3: another typo is corrected