Related papers: On the Concentration of the Missing Mass
We study the problem of estimating a distribution over a finite alphabet from an i.i.d. sample, with accuracy measured in relative entropy (Kullback-Leibler divergence). While optimal bounds on the expected risk are known, high-probability…
We study the problem of estimating the joint probability mass function (pmf) over two random variables. In particular, the estimation is based on the observation of $m$ samples containing both variables and $n$ samples missing one fixed…
Concentration of measure is a phenomenon in which a random variable that depends in a smooth way on a large number of independent random variables is essentially constant. The random variable will "concentrate" around its median or…
We study the effects of missingness on the estimation of population parameters. Moving beyond restrictive missing completely at random (MCAR) assumptions, we first formulate a missing data analogue of Huber's arbitrary…
We investigate the asymptotic normality of the posterior distribution in the discrete setting, when model dimension increases with sample size. We consider a probability mass function $\theta_0$ on $\mathbbm{N}\setminus \{0\}$ and a…
A probabilistic query may not be estimable from observed data corrupted by missing values if the data are not missing at random (MAR). It is therefore of theoretical interest and practical importance to determine in principle whether a…
We consider the quantum expectation value \mathcal{A}=\<\psi|A|\psi\> of an observable A over the state |\psi\> . We derive the exact probability distribution of \mathcal{A} seen as a random variable when |\psi\> varies over the set of all…
We derive a Bayesian framework for incorporating selection effects into population analyses. We allow for both measurement uncertainty in individual measurements and, crucially, for selection biases on the population of measurements, and…
In this paper we consider the problem of linear unmixing hidden random variables defined over the simplex with additive Gaussian noise, also known as probabilistic simplex component analysis (PRISM). Previous solutions to tackle this…
In the geosciences, a recurring problem is one of estimating spatial means of a physical field using weighted averages of point observations. An important variant is when individual observations are counted with some probability less than…
This paper presents theoretical results on combining non-probability and probability survey samples through mass imputation, an approach originally proposed by Rivers (2007) as sample matching without rigorous theoretical justification.…
A comprehensive new approach is presented for deriving probability densities of physical properties characterizing lens or source that constitute an observed galactic microlensing event. While previously encountered problems are overcome,…
We use a Bayesian approach to derive the distance probability distribution for one object from its parallax with measurement uncertainty for two spatial distribution priors, viz. a homogeneous spherical distribution and a galactocentric…
Importance sampling is a well developed method in statistics. Given a random variable $X$, the problem of estimating its expected value $\mu$ is addressed. The standard approach is to use the sample mean as an estimator $\bar x$. In…
This paper presents concentration inequalities and laws of large numbers under weak assumptions of irrelevance, expressed through lower and upper expectations. The results are variants and extensions of De Cooman and Miranda's recent…
In statistical inference, uncertainty is unknown and all models are wrong. That is to say, a person who makes a statistical model and a prior distribution is simultaneously aware that both are fictional candidates. To study such cases,…
Importance sampling is a popular method for efficient computation of various properties of a distribution such as probabilities, expectations, quantiles etc. The output of an importance sampling algorithm can be represented as a weighted…
The authors transpose a discrete notion of indetermination coupling in the case of continuous probabilities. They show that this coupling, expressed on densities, cannot be captured by a specific copula which acts on cumulative distribution…
We consider a sequence of identically independently distributed random samples from an absolutely continuous probability measure in one dimension with unbounded density. We establish a new rate of convergence of the $\infty-$Wasserstein…
Concentration inequalities quantify the deviation of a random variable from a fixed value. In spite of numerous applications, such as opinion surveys or ecological counting procedures, few concentration results are known for the setting of…