English

On the probability of a Pareto record

Probability 2024-05-07 v2 Data Structures and Algorithms

Abstract

Given a sequence of independent random vectors taking values in Rd{\mathbb R}^d and having common continuous distribution function FF, say that the nthn^{\rm \scriptsize th} observation sets a (Pareto) record if it is not dominated (in every coordinate) by any preceding observation. Let pn(F)pn,d(F)p_n(F) \equiv p_{n, d}(F) denote the probability that the nthn^{\rm \scriptsize th} observation sets a record. There are many interesting questions to address concerning pnp_n and multivariate records more generally, but this short paper focuses on how pnp_n varies with FF, particularly if, under FF, the coordinates exhibit negative dependence or positive dependence (rather than independence, a more-studied case). We introduce new notions of negative and positive dependence ideally suited for such a study, called negative record-setting probability dependence (NRPD) and positive record-setting probability dependence (PRPD), relate these notions to existing notions of dependence, and for fixed d2d \geq 2 and n1n \geq 1 prove that the image of the mapping pnp_n on the domain of NRPD (respectively, PRPD) distributions is [pn,1][p^*_n, 1] (resp., [n1,pn][n^{-1}, p^*_n]), where pnp^*_n is the record-setting probability for any continuous FF governing independent coordinates.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2402.17220,
  title  = {On the probability of a Pareto record},
  author = {James Allen Fill and Ao Sun},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2402.17220},
  year   = {2024}
}

Comments

16 pages, 1 figure; this revision responds to three anonymous reviews; paper accepted to Probability in the Engineering and Informational Sciences