Related papers: Optimal binomial, Poisson, and normal left-tail do…

We derive upper bounds on the tail conditional expectation of binomial and Poisson random variables. Those upper bounds are subsequently employed to the problem of obtaining non-asymptotic lower bounds on the probability that the…

Let $X$ be a random variable distributed according to the binomial distribution with parameters $n$ and $p$. It is shown that $P(X>EX)\ge1/4$ if $1>p\ge c/n$, where $c:=\ln(4/3)$, the best possible constant factor.

The well-known "Janson's inequality" gives Poisson-like upper bounds for the lower tail probability \Pr(X \le (1-\eps)\E X) when X is the sum of dependent indicator random variables of a special form. We show that, for large deviations,…

We study the almost surely finite random variable $S$ defined by the distributional fixed-point equation \[ S \stackrel{d}{=} 1 + \max\{US', (1-U)S''\}, \qquad U \sim \mathrm{Unif}(0,1), \] where $S'$ and $S''$ are independent copies of…

We take an $L_1$-dense class of functions $\Cal F$ on a measurable space $(X,\Cal X)$ and a sequence of i.i.d. $X$-valued random variables $\xi_1,\dots,\xi_n$, and give a good estimate on the tail behaviour of $\sup\limits_{f\in\Cal…

Let $\{\xi_1,\xi_2,\ldots\}$ be a sequence of independent random variables (not necessarily identically distributed), and $\eta$ be a counting random variable independent of this sequence. We obtain sufficient conditions on…

Let $\{\xi_1,\xi_2,\ldots\}$ be a sequence of independent random variables, and $\eta$ be a counting random variable independent of this sequence. In addition, let $S_0:=0$ and $S_n:=\xi_1+\xi_2+\cdots+\xi_n$ for $n\geqslant1$. We consider…

Let $ V_{n} = X_{1,n} + X_{2,n} + \cdots + X_{n,n}$ where $X_{i,n}$ are Bernoulli random variables which take the value $1$ with probability $b(i;n)$. Let $\lambda_{n} = \sum\limits_{i=1}^{n} b(i;n) $, $\lambda = \lim\limits_{n \to \infty}…

We generalise the known fact that for binomial $X_{n,k} \sim \mathrm{Bin}(n, k/n)$ one has $\inf_{k>1,n} \mathrm{P}(X_{n,k} \geq k) \geq \lim_{k \to 1+}\mathrm{P}(X_{2,k} \geq k) = 1/4$ to cover probabilities of exceeding a constant shift…

Let $X_1,\ldots,X_n$ be independent identically distributed random vectors in $\mathbb{R}^d$. We consider upper bounds on $\max_x \mathbb{P}(a_1X_1+\cdots+a_nX_n=x)$ under various restrictions on $X_i$ and the weights $a_i$. When…

A Poisson Binomial distribution over $n$ variables is the distribution of the sum of $n$ independent Bernoullis. We provide a sample near-optimal algorithm for testing whether a distribution $P$ supported on $\{0,...,n\}$ to which we have…

Let $S$ and $X$ be independent random variables, assuming values in the set of non-negative integers, and suppose further that both $\mathbb{E}(S)$ and $\mathbb{E}(X)$ are integers satisfying $\mathbb{E}(S)\ge \mathbb{E}(X)$. We establish a…

The negative binomial distribution has been widely used as a more flexible model than the Poisson distribution for count data. However, when the true data-generating process is Poisson, it is often challenging to distinguish it from a…

We re-examine a lower-tail upper bound for the random variable $$X=\prod_{i=1}^{\infty}\min\left\{\sum_{k=1}^iE_k,1\right\},$$ where $E_1,E_2,\ldots\stackrel{iid}\sim\text{Exp}(1)$. This bound has found use in root-finding and seed-finding…

We study the $k$:th raw moment of a variable $R$ following the binomial distribution $\text{B}(n, p)$, where $n/k \rightarrow \beta > 0$. It is known that $\mathbb{E}(R^k)$ is bounded both from below and from above by functions of the form…

Estimates are constructed for the deviation of the concentration functions of sums of independent random variables with finite variances from the folded normal distribution function without any assumptions concerning the existence of the…

We present a method for upper and lower bounding the right and the left tail probabilities of continuous random variables (RVs). For the right tail probability of RV $X$ with probability density function $f (x)$, this method requires first…

In this note we establish a uniform bound for the distribution of a sum $S_n=X_1+\cdots+X_n$ of independent non-homogeneous Bernoulli trials. Specifically, we prove that $\sigma_n \mathbb{P}(S_n\!=\!j)\leq\eta$ where $\sigma_n$ denotes the…

Under the assumption that the distribution of a nonnegative random variable $X$ admits a bounded coupling with its size biased version, we prove simple and strong concentration bounds. In particular the upper tail probability is shown to…

This paper considers a variation of the full-information secretary problem where the random variables to be observed are independent but not necessary identically distributed. The main result is a sharp lower bound for the optimal win…