Related papers: Difference prophet inequalities for [0,1]-valued i…
We consider an optimal stopping problem with n correlated offers where the goal is to design a (randomized) stopping strategy that maximizes the expected value of the offer in the sequence at which we stop. Instead of assuming to know the…
(To appear in The American Statistician.) Distance covariance (Sz\'ekely, Rizzo, and Bakirov, 2007) is a fascinating recent notion, which is popular as a test for dependence of any type between random variables $X$ and $Y$. This approach…
Prophet inequalities compare the expected performance of an online algorithm for a stochastic optimization problem to the expected optimal solution in hindsight. They are a major alternative to classic worst-case competitive analysis, of…
Consider a gambler and a prophet who observe a sequence of independent, non-negative numbers. The gambler sees the numbers one-by-one whereas the prophet sees the entire sequence at once. The goal of both is to decide on fractions of each…
Over the past two decades, significant strides have been made in stochastic problems such as revenue-optimal auction design and prophet inequalities, traditionally modeled with $n$ independent random variables to represent the values of $n$…
We study the extremes of a sequence of random variables $(R_n)$ defined by the recurrence $R_n=M_nR_{n-1}+q$, $n\ge1$, where $R_0$ is arbitrary, $(M_n)$ are iid copies of a non--degenerate random variable $M$, $0\le M\le1$, and $q>0$ is a…
Hill and Kertz studied the prophet inequality on iid distributions [The Annals of Probability 1982]. They proved a theoretical bound of $1-\frac{1}{e}$ on the approximation factor of their algorithm. They conjectured that the best…
We consider upper exponential bounds for the probability of the event that an absolute deviation of sample mean from mathematical expectation p is bigger comparing with some ordered level epsilon. These bounds include 2 coefficients {alpha,…
We study and compare three estimators of a discrete monotone distribution: (a) the (raw) empirical estimator; (b) the "method of rearrangements" estimator; and (c) the maximum likelihood estimator. We show that the maximum likelihood…
We are concerned with three types of uncertainties: probabilistic, possibilitistic and interval. By using possibility and necessity measures as an Interval Valued Probability Measure (IVPM), we present IVPM's interval expected values whose…
This paper gives upper and lower bounds on the gap in Jensen's inequality, i.e., the difference between the expected value of a function of a random variable and the value of the function at the expected value of the random variable. The…
We study two-sample variable selection: identifying variables that discriminate between the distributions of two sets of data vectors. Such variables help scientists understand the mechanisms behind dataset discrepancies. Although…
We consider univariate regression estimation from an individual (non-random) sequence $(x_1,y_1),(x_2,y_2), ... \in \real \times \real$, which is stable in the sense that for each interval $A \subseteq \real$, (i) the limiting relative…
Let $(X_i)_{i \geq 1}$ and $(Y_i)_{i\geq1}$ be two independent sequences of independent identically distributed random variables taking their values in a common finite alphabet and having the same law. Let $LC_n$ be the length of the…
The bounds for absolute moments of order statistics are established. Let $X_1,\dots ,X_n$ be independent identically distributed real-valued random variables and let $X_{1:n}\le \dots \le X_{n:n}$ be the corresponding order statistics. The…
We give a comparison inequality that allows one to estimate the tail probabilities of sums of independent Banach space valued random variables in terms of those of independent identically distributed random variables. More precisely, let…
We consider the problem of selling perishable items to a stream of buyers in order to maximize social welfare. A seller starts with a set of identical items, and each arriving buyer wants any one item, and has a valuation drawn i.i.d. from…
Let $a_1, \dots, a_n \in \mathbb{R}$ satisfy $\sum_i a_i^2 = 1$, and let $\varepsilon_1, \ldots, \varepsilon_n$ be uniformly random $\pm 1$ signs and $X = \sum_{i=1}^{n} a_i \varepsilon_i$. It is conjectured that $X = \sum_{i=1}^{n} a_i…
We explore some properties of the conditional distribution of an i.i.d. sample under large exceedances of its sum. Thresholds for the asymptotic independance of the summands are observed, in contrast with the classical case when the…
In the prophet inequality problem, a gambler faces a sequence of items arriving online with values drawn independently from known distributions. On seeing an item, the gambler must choose whether to accept its value as her reward and quit…