Related papers: On the probability that a binomial variable is at …

An NP-hard combinatorial optimization problem $\Pi$ is said to have an {\em approximation threshold} if there is some $t$ such that the optimal value of $\Pi$ can be approximated in polynomial time within a ratio of $t$, and it is NP-hard…

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 give an elementary probabilistic proof of a binomial identity. The proof is obtained by computing the probability of a certain event in two different ways, yielding two different expressions for the same quantity.

It is well known that a binomial $(n,p)$ can be approximated by a Poisson distribution with parameter $np$. The typical approach in undergraduate probability texts is to show a convergence result for the distribution of the binomial as $n$…

In an earlier paper, we discussed the probability that the determinant of a matrix undergoes the least change upon perturbation of one of its elements, provided that most or all of the elements of the matrix are chosen at random and that…

While useful probability bounds for $n$ pairwise independent Bernoulli random variables adding up to at least an integer $k$ have been proposed in the literature, none of these bounds are tight in general. In this paper, we provide several…

Let $ X_1, \ldots, X_n $ be independent random variables taking values in the alphabet $ \{0, 1, \ldots, r\} $, and $ S_n = \sum_{i = 1}^n X_i $. The Shepp--Olkin theorem states that, in the binary case ($ r = 1 $), the Shannon entropy of $…

Let $b(x)$ be the probability that a sum of independent Bernoulli random variables with parameters $p_1, p_2, p_3, \ldots \in [0,1)$ equals $x$, where $\lambda := p_1 + p_2 + p_3 + \cdots$ is finite. We prove two inequalities for the…

We study two types of probability measures on the set of integer partitions of $n$ with at most $m$ parts. The first one chooses the random partition with a chance related to its largest part only. We then obtain the limiting distributions…

For a graph $G=(V,E)$, let $bc(G)$ denote the minimum number of pairwise edge disjoint complete bipartite subgraphs of $G$ so that each edge of $G$ belongs to exactly one of them. It is easy to see that for every graph $G$, $bc(G) \leq n…

We consider Khintchine type inequalities on the $p$-th moments of vectors of $N$ pairwise independent Rademacher random variables. We establish that an analogue of Khintchine's inequality cannot hold in this setting with a constant that is…

For the set of graphs with a given degree sequence, consisting of any number of $2's$ and $1's$, and its subset of bipartite graphs, we characterize the optimal graphs who maximize and minimize the number of $m$-matchings. We find the…

We study sums of independent random variables that take values $0$, $1/2$, or $1$. We show that the probability mass function of the sum splits into two interleaved parts: one supported on the integers and the other supported on the…

We consider the binomial distribution with parameters $n$ and $x$, and show that the sum of the squared probabilities is a log-convex function of $x$. This completes the proof of a conjecture formulated in 2014. Applications to R\'{e}nyi…

Worst-case bounds on the expected shortfall risk given only limited information on the distribution of the random variables has been studied extensively in the literature. In this paper, we develop a new worst-case bound on the expected…

For independent random variables $(X_i)_{1\leq i\leq n}$, we consider the maximal correlation coefficient $R=R(\min_{i:1\leq i\leq m}X_i,\min_{j:\ell+1\leq j\leq n}X_j)$. If $X_1,X_2,\ldots,X_n$ are identically distributed with the same…

A well-known conjecture asserts that, for any given positive real number $\lambda$ and nonnegative integer $m$, the proportion of positive integers $n \le x$ for which the interval $(n,n + \lambda\log n]$ contains exactly $m$ primes is…

Consider a universal Turing machine that produces a partial or total function (or a binary stream), based on the answers to the binary queries that it makes during the computation. We study the probability that the machine will produce a…

In this paper, we proposed an interesting problem that might be classified into enumerative combinatorics. Featuring a distinctive two-fold dependence upon the sequences' terms, our problem can be really difficult, which calls for novel…

Let $\eta_i, i=1,..., n$ be iid Bernoulli random variables. Given a multiset $\bv$ of $n$ numbers $v_1, ..., v_n$, the \emph{concentration probability} $\P_1(\bv)$ of $\bv$ is defined as $\P_1(\bv) := \sup_{x} \P(v_1 \eta_1+ ... v_n…