Related papers: On the probability that a binomial variable is at …
Chv\'{a}tal's conjecture in extremal combinatorics asserts that for any decreasing family $\mathcal{F}$ of subsets of a finite set $S$, there is a largest intersecting subfamily of $\mathcal{F}$ consisting of all members of $\mathcal{F}$…
We study a new family of random variables, that each arise as the distribution of the maximum or minimum of a random number $N$ of i.i.d.~random variables $X_1,X_2,\ldots,X_N$, each distributed as a variable $X$ with support on $[0,1]$. The…
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…
In this paper, we compute the tightest possible bounds on the probability that the optimal value of a combinatorial optimization problem in maximization form with a random objective exceeds a given number, assuming only knowledge of the…
In this paper, we present an algorithm which allows us to search for all the bisections for the binomial coefficients $\{\binom{n}{k} \}_{k=0,...,n}$ and include a table with the results for all $n\le 154$. Connections with previous work on…
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…
It is a common contention that it is an ``impossible mission'' to exactly determine the minimum sample size for the estimation of a binomial parameter with prescribed margin of error and confidence level. In this paper, we investigate such…
We present an algorithm that takes a discrete random variable $X$ and a number $m$ and computes a random variable whose support (set of possible outcomes) is of size at most $m$ and whose Kolmogorov distance from $X$ is minimal. In addition…
The (strong) Bruhat order for permutations provides a partial ordering defined as follows: two permutations are comparable if one can be obtained from the other by a sequence of adjacent transpositions that each increase the number of…
A celebrated conjecture of Zs. Tuza says that in any (finite) graph, the minimum size of a cover of triangles by edges is at most twice the maximum size of a set of edge-disjoint triangles. Resolving a recent question of Bennett, Dudek, and…
We consider the limiting distribution of the quantity $X^s/(X+Y)^r$, where $X$ and $Y$ are two independent Binomial random variables with a common success probability and a number of trials $n$ and $m$, respectively, and $r,s$ are positive…
We consider (near-)critical percolation on the square lattice. Let M_n be the size of the largest open cluster contained in the box [-n,n]^2, and let pi(n) be the probability that there is an open path from O to the boundary of the box. It…
We study the minimax optimal rates for estimating a range of Integral Probability Metrics (IPMs) between two unknown probability measures, based on $n$ independent samples from them. Curiously, we show that estimating the IPM itself between…
Sequential estimation of a probability $p$ by means of inverse binomial sampling is considered. For $\mu_1,\mu_2>1$ given, the accuracy of an estimator $\hat{p}$ is measured by the confidence level $P[p/\mu_2\leq\hat{p}\leq p\mu_1]$. The…
We consider the fundamental problem of selecting $k$ out of $n$ random variables in a way that the expected highest or second-highest value is maximized. This question captures several applications where we have uncertainty about the…
We give a simple statistical proof of a binomial identity, by evaluating the Laplace transform of the maximum of n independent exponential random variables in two different ways. As a by product, we obtain a simple proof of an interesting…
The bias of an estimator is defined as the difference of its expected value from the parameter to be estimated, where the expectation is with respect to the model. Loosely speaking, small bias reflects the desire that if an experiment is…
We connect the power of Confidence Intervals in different Frequentist methods to their reliability. We show that in the case of a bounded parameter a biased method which near the boundary has large power in testing the parameter against…
Consider two sequences of $n$ independent and identically distributed fair coin tosses, $X=(X_1,\ldots,X_n)$ and $Y=(Y_1,\ldots,Y_n)$, which are $\rho$-correlated for each $j$, i.e. $\mathbb{P}[X_j=Y_j] = {1+\rho\over 2}$. We study the…
Let $M(n, k, p)$ denote the maximum probability of the event $X_1 = X_2 = \cdots = X_n=1$ under a $k$-wise independent distribution whose marginals are Bernoulli random variables with mean $p$. A long-standing question is to calculate $M(n,…