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Related papers: Testing convexity of a discrete distribution

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We consider the problem of testing whether a multivariate distribution is axially symmetric about some unknown direction. Under a simple-spectrum assumption on the covariance matrix, any symmetry axis must coincide with an eigenvector of…

Statistics Theory · Mathematics 2026-04-13 Alejandro Cholaquidis , Juan Cuesta-Albertos , Ricardo Fraiman , Manuel Hernández-Banadik

We consider the problems of \emph{learning} and \emph{testing} real-valued convex functions over Gaussian space. Despite the extensive study of function convexity across mathematics, statistics, and computer science, its learnability and…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2025-11-17 Renato Ferreira Pinto , Cassandra Marcussen , Elchanan Mossel , Shivam Nadimpalli

We discuss a general approach to handling "multiple hypotheses" testing in the case when a particular hypothesis states that the vector of parameters identifying the distribution of observations belongs to a convex compact set associated…

Statistics Theory · Mathematics 2016-02-24 A. Goldenshluger , A. Juditski , A. Nemirovski

This paper proposes a new estimation procedure for the ambiguity function of a non-stationary time series. The stochastic properties of the empirical ambiguity function calculated from a single sample in time are derived. Different…

Methodology · Statistics 2009-08-21 Heidi Hindberg , Sofia C. Olhede

This paper presents a procedure for testing the hypothesis that the underlying distribution of the data is elliptical when using robust location and scatter estimators instead of the sample mean and covariance matrix. Under mild assumptions…

Methodology · Statistics 2015-02-20 Ana M. Bianco , Graciela Boente , Isabel M. Rodrigues

We consider a class of hypothesis testing problems where the null hypothesis postulates $M$ distributions for the observed data, and there is only one possible distribution under the alternative. We show that one can use a stochastic mirror…

The problem of minimizing convex functionals of probability distributions is solved under the assumption that the density of every distribution is bounded from above and below. A system of sufficient and necessary first-order optimality…

Information Theory · Computer Science 2018-12-05 Michael Fauss , Abdelhak M. Zoubir

Generalizing the well-known relations on characteristic functions on a plane to the case of a one-dimensional regular surface (curve) with compact support, we establish implicit equations for these functions. Introducing an approximation,…

Probability · Mathematics 2007-05-23 D. S. Grebenkov

We present the asymptotic distribution for two-sided tests based on the profile likelihood ratio with lower and upper boundaries on the parameter of interest. This situation is relevant for branching ratios and the elements of unitary…

Data Analysis, Statistics and Probability · Physics 2012-10-26 Glen Cowan , Kyle Cranmer , Eilam Gross , Ofer Vitells

Given observations from a circular random variable contaminated by an additive measurement error, we consider the problem of minimax optimal goodness-of-fit testing in a non-asymptotic framework. We propose direct and indirect testing…

Statistics Theory · Mathematics 2020-07-14 Sandra Schluttenhofer , Jan Johannes

We develop a new technique for proving distribution testing lower bounds for properties defined by inequalities involving the bin probabilities of the distribution in question. Using this technique we obtain new lower bounds for…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2023-08-02 Yuqian Cheng , Daniel M. Kane , Zhicheng Zheng

In this paper we propose a Bayesian answer to testing problems when the hypotheses are not well separated. The idea of the method is to study the posterior distribution of a discrepancy measure between the parameter and the model we want to…

Statistics Theory · Mathematics 2017-06-28 Jean-Bernard Salomond

We introduce estimation and test procedures through divergence minimization for models satisfying linear constraints with unknown parameter. Several statistical examples and motivations are given. These procedures extend the empirical…

Statistics Theory · Mathematics 2008-11-24 Michel Broniatowski , Amor Keziou

We study the question of testing structured properties (classes) of discrete distributions. Specifically, given sample access to an arbitrary distribution $D$ over $[n]$ and a property $\mathcal{P}$, the goal is to distinguish between…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2016-01-22 Clément L. Canonne , Ilias Diakonikolas , Themis Gouleakis , Ronitt Rubinfeld

Consider a pair of cumulative distribution functions $F$ and $G$, where $F$ is unknown and $G$ is a known reference distribution. Given a sample from $F$, we propose tests to detect the convexity or the concavity of $G^{-1}\circ F$ versus…

Statistics Theory · Mathematics 2025-06-25 Tommaso Lando , Mohammed Es-Salih Benjrada

This work is concerned with the detection of a mixture distribution from a $\mathbb{R}$-valued sample. Given a sample $X_1,\dots,X_n$ and an even density $\phi$, our aim is to detect whether the sample distribution is $\phi(\cdot-\mu)$ for…

Statistics Theory · Mathematics 2016-01-22 Béatrice Laurent , Clément Marteau , Cathy Maugis-Rabusseau

We establish new upper and lower bounds on the number of queries required to test convexity of functions over various discrete domains. 1. We provide a simplified version of the non-adaptive convexity tester on the line. We re-prove the…

Computational Complexity · Computer Science 2019-08-08 Aleksandrs Belovs , Eric Blais , Abhinav Bommireddi

In this article, we construct semiparametrically efficient estimators of linear functionals of a probability measure in the presence of side information using an easy empirical likelihood approach. We use estimated constraint functions and…

Methodology · Statistics 2023-03-01 Shan Wang , Hanxiang Peng

In this paper, we introduce a flexible and widely applicable nonparametric entropy-based testing procedure that can be used to assess the validity of simple hypotheses about a specific parametric population distribution. The testing…

Econometrics · Economics 2022-01-19 Ron Mittelhammer , George Judge , Miguel Henry

We describe and examine a test for a general class of shape constraints, such as constraints on the signs of derivatives, U-(S-)shape, symmetry, quasi-convexity, log-convexity, $r$-convexity, among others, in a nonparametric framework using…

Methodology · Statistics 2020-06-09 Tatiana Komarova , Javier Hidalgo