Related papers: A study on the negative binomial distribution moti…

Many statistical hypotheses can be formulated in terms of polynomial equalities and inequalities in the unknown parameters and thus correspond to semi-algebraic subsets of the parameter space. We consider large sample asymptotics for the…

According to the classic Chv{\'{a}}tal's Lemma from 1977, a graph of minimum degree $\delta(G)$ contains every tree on $\delta(G)+1$ vertices. Our main result is the following algorithmic "extension" of Chv\'{a}tal's Lemma: For any…

Let $\log^{2+\varepsilon} n \le d \le n/2$ for some fixed $\varepsilon \in (0,1)$, and let $M_n$ be an $n\times n$ random matrix with entries in ${0,1}$, where each row is independently and uniformly sampled from the set of all vectors in…

The \emph{choice number} of a graph $G$, denoted $\ch(G)$, is the minimum integer $k$ such that for any assignment of lists of size $k$ to the vertices of $G$, there is a proper colouring of $G$ such that every vertex is mapped to a colour…

We prove two-sided Chevet-type inequalities for independent symmetric Weibull random variables with shape parameter $r\in[1,2]$. We apply them to provide two-sided estimates for operator norms from $\ell_p^n$ to $\ell_q^m$ of random…

The Boltzmann distribution (the most probable distribution) is one of the most important concepts used in physics, chemistry and biology. Suppose we put the system initially in one of the less probable state then the system will find the…

For a $d$-dimensional random vector $X$, let $p_{n, X}(\theta)$ be the probability that the convex hull of $n$ independent copies of $X$ contains a given point $\theta$. We provide several sharp inequalities regarding $p_{n, X}(\theta)$ and…

For several pairs $(P,Q)$ of classical distributions on $\N_0$, we show that their stochastic ordering $P\leq_{st} Q$ can be characterized by their extreme tail ordering equivalent to $ P(\{k_\ast \})/Q(\{k_\ast\}) \le 1 \le \lim_{k\to…

A remarkable conjecture of Feige (2006) asserts that for any collection of $n$ independent non-negative random variables $X_1, X_2, \dots, X_n$, each with expectation at most $1$, $$ \mathbb{P}(X < \mathbb{E}[X] + 1) \geq \frac{1}{e}, $$…

This note concerns a somewhat innocent question motivated by an observation concerning the use of Chebyshev bounds on sample estimates of $p$ in the binomial distribution with parameters $n,p$. Namely, what moment order produces the best…

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…

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 $n$…

Let m be a probability measure supported on some infinite and compact set K in the complex plane and let p_n(z) be the corresponding degree n orthonormal polynomial with positive leading coefficient. Let v_n be the normalized zero counting…

Cromwell's rule (also known as the zero priors paradox) refers to the constraint of classical probability theory that if one assigns a prior probability of 0 or 1 to a hypothesis, then the posterior has to be 0 or 1 as well (this is a…

We show that for every $k$, the probability that a randomly selected vertex of a random binary search tree on $n$ nodes is at distance $k-1$ from the closest leaf converges to a rational constant $c_k$ as $n$ goes to infinity.

A polynomial of the form $x^\alpha - p(x)$, where the degree of $p$ is less than the total degree of $x^\alpha$, is said to be least deviation from zero if it has the smallest uniform norm among all such polynomials. We study polynomials of…

A random vector ${\bf X}$ is weakly stable iff for all $a,b \in \mathbb{R}$ there exists a random variable $\Theta$ such that $a{\bf X} + b {\bf X}' \stackrel{d}{=} {\bf X} \Theta$, where $X'$ is an independent copy of $X$ and $\Theta$ is…

We demonstrate that selection of the minimal value of ordered variables leads in a natural way to its distribution being given by the Tsallis distribution, the same as that resulting from Tsallis nonextensive statistics. The possible…

Min-entropy sampling gives a bound on the min-entropy of a randomly chosen subset of a string, given a bound on the min-entropy of the whole string. K\"onig and Renner showed a min-entropy sampling theorem that holds relative to quantum…

A vertex $v$ in a porous exponential dominating set assigns weight $\left(\tfrac{1}{2}\right)^{dist(v,u)}$ to vertex $u$. A porous exponential dominating set of a graph $G$ is a subset of $V(G)$ such that every vertex in $V(G)$ has been…