Related papers: A distribution on triples with maximum entropy mar…

The problem of determining the joint probability distributions for correlated random variables with pre-specified marginals is considered. When the joint distribution satisfying all the required conditions is not unique, the "most unbiased"…

A pair of probability distributions over $\{0,1\}^n$ is said to be $(k,\delta)$-wise indistinguishable if all of the size $k$ marginals are within statistical distance at most $\delta$. Previous works introduced this concept and study when…

We consider distributions of ordered random vectors with given one-dimensional marginal distributions. We give an elementary necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of such a distribution with finite entropy. In this case, we…

Given two discrete random variables $X$ and $Y$, with probability distributions ${\bf p} =(p_1, \ldots , p_n)$ and ${\bf q}=(q_1, \ldots , q_m)$, respectively, denote by ${\cal C}({\bf p}, {\bf q})$ the set of all couplings of ${\bf p}$ and…

Exponential random graph models have attracted significant research attention over the past decades. These models are maximum-entropy ensembles under the constraints that the expected values of a set of graph observables are equal to given…

Given two discrete random variables $X$ and $Y,$ with probability distributions ${\bf p}=(p_1, \ldots , p_n)$ and ${\bf q}=(q_1, \ldots , q_m)$, respectively, denote by ${\cal C}({\bf p}, {\bf q})$ the set of all couplings of ${\bf p}$ and…

We introduce families of jointly symmetric, binary distributions that are generated over directed star graphs whose nodes represent variables and whose edges indicate positive dependences. The families are parametrized in terms of a single…

The classical problem of maximizing the Shannon entropy of a sum of independent random variables supported on a finite alphabet is considered and settled in the ternary case. Namely, the following theorem is established: if…

We establish a lower bound on the entropy of weighted sums of (possibly dependent) random variables $(X_1, X_2, \dots, X_n)$ possessing a symmetric joint distribution. Our lower bound is in terms of the joint entropy of $(X_1, X_2, \dots,…

In this paper we partially resolve Hall's conjecture about the distribution of random triangles. We consider the probability that three points chosen uniformly at random, in a bounded convex region of the plane, form an acute triangle.…

Let $A$ be drawn uniformly at random from the set of all $n\times n$ symmetric matrices with entries in $\{-1,1\}$. We show that \[ \mathbb{P}( \det(A) = 0 ) \leq e^{-cn},\] where $c>0$ is an absolute constant, thereby resolving a…

In this paper we investigate the probability distribution of the sum $Y$ of $\ell$ independent identically distributed random variables taking values in $\mathbb{Z}_p$. Our main focus is the regime of small values of $\ell$, which is less…

Let A be a square matrix with real entries. The spread of A is defined as the maximum of the distances among the eigenvalues of A. Let $S_m[a,b]$ denote the set of all $m\times m$ symmetric matrices with entries in the real interval $[a,b]$…

We consider the probability distributions of values in the complex plane attained by Fourier sums of the form \sum_{j=1}^n a_j exp(-2\pi i j nu) /sqrt{n} when the frequency nu is drawn uniformly at random from an interval of length 1. If…

A common statistical situation concerns inferring an unknown distribution Q(x) from a known distribution P(y), where X (dimension n), and Y (dimension m) have a known functional relationship. Most commonly, n<m, and the task is relatively…

We obtain inequalities involving the entropy of a positive integer and the divergence of two positive integers, respectively the entropy of an ideal and the divergence of two ideals in a ring of algebraic integers. Among the important…

We propose a family of "exactly solvable" probability distributions to approximate partition functions of two-dimensional statistical mechanics models. While these distributions lie strictly outside the mean-field framework, their free…

We define a one-parameter family of entropies, each assigning a real number to any probability measure on a compact metric space (or, more generally, a compact Hausdorff space with a notion of similarity between points). These entropies…

Two old conjectures from problem sections, one of which from SIAM Review, concern the question of finding distributions that maximize P(Sn <= t), where Sn is the sum of i.i.d. random variables X1, ..., Xn on the interval [0,1], satisfying…

We determine the distribution of the sandpile group (a.k.a. Jacobian) of the Erd\H{o}s-R\'enyi random graph G(n,q) as n goes to infinity. Since any particular group appears with asymptotic probability 0 (as we show), it is natural ask for…