Related papers: Prophet inequalities for i.i.d. random variables w…
Based on a maximal inequality type result of Cuculescu, we establish some noncommutative maximal inequalities such as Haj\'ek--Penyi inequality and Etemadi inequality. In addition, we present a noncommutative Kolmogorov type inequality by…
Let $\{X_i\}$ be a sequence of independent identically distributed random variables with an intermediate regularly varying (IR) right tail $\bar{F}$. Let $(N, C_1, ..., C_N)$ be a nonnegative random vector independent of the $\{X_i\}$ with…
We introduce a model of competing agents in a prophet setting, where rewards arrive online, and decisions are made immediately and irrevocably. The rewards are unknown from the outset, but they are drawn from a known probability…
In this work we initiate the study of buy-and-sell prophet inequalities. We start by considering what is arguably the most fundamental setting. In this setting the online algorithm observes a sequence of prices one after the other. At each…
Consider a first-come, first-served single server queue with an initial workload $x>0$ and customers who arrive according to an inhomogeneous Poisson process with rate function $\lambda:[0,\infty)\rightarrow[0,\lambda_h ]$ for some…
A curious connection exists between the theory of optimal stopping for independent random variables, and branching processes. In particular, for the branching process $Z_n$ with offspring distribution $Y$, there exists a random variable $X$…
Optimal stopping theory is a powerful tool for analyzing scenarios such as online auctions in which we generally require optimizing an objective function over the space of stopping rules for an allocation process under uncertainty. Perhaps…
Original paper: We revisit the probability that any two consecutive events in a Poisson process N on [0,t] are separated by a time interval which is greater than s(<t) (a particular scan statistic probability), and the closely related…
We consider optimal stopping problems, in which a sequence of independent random variables is drawn from a known continuous density. The objective of such problems is to find a procedure which maximizes the expected reward; this is often…
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…
Two new information-theoretic methods are introduced for establishing Poisson approximation inequalities. First, using only elementary information-theoretic techniques it is shown that, when $S_n=\sum_{i=1}^nX_i$ is the sum of the (possibly…
We investigate a detector scheme designed to measure the arrival of a particle at $x=0$ during a finite time interval. The detector consists of a two state system which undergoes a transition from one state to the other when the particle…
In online sales, sellers usually offer each potential buyer a posted price in a take-it-or-leave fashion. Buyers can sometimes see posted prices faced by other buyers, and changing the price frequently could be considered unfair. The…
The claim arrival process to an insurance company is modeled by a compound Poisson process whose intensity and/or jump size distribution changes at an unobservable time with a known distribution. It is in the insurance company's interest to…
The paper addresses two variants of the stochastic shortest path problem ('optimize the accumulated weight until reaching a goal state') in Markov decision processes (MDPs) with integer weights. The first variant optimizes partial expected…
We consider the problem of parameter estimation for a stochastic McKean-Vlasov equation, and the associated system of weakly interacting particles. We study two cases: one in which we observe multiple independent trajectories of the…
To perform a queuing analysis or design in a communications context, we need to estimate the values of the input parameters, specifically the mean of the arrival rate and service time. In this paper, we propose an approach for estimating…
Randomized approximation algorithms for many #P-complete problems (such as the partition function of a Gibbs distribution, the volume of a convex body, the permanent of a $\{0,1\}$-matrix, and many others) reduce to creating random…
We explore a prophet inequality problem, where the values of a sequence of items are drawn i.i.d. from some distribution, and an online decision maker must select one item irrevocably. We establish that $\mathrm{CR}_{\ell}$ the worst-case…
A maximal inequality is an inequality which involves the (absolute) supremum $\sup_{s\leq t}|X_{s}|$ or the running maximum $\sup_{s\leq t}X_{s}$ of a stochastic process $(X_t)_{t\geq 0}$. We discuss maximal inequalities for several classes…