English

A Berry-Esseen theorem for Pitman's $\alpha$-diversity

Probability 2020-09-22 v2

Abstract

This paper is concerned with the study of the random variable KnK_n denoting the number of distinct elements in a random sample (X1,,Xn)(X_1, \dots, X_n) of exchangeable random variables driven by the two parameter Poisson-Dirichlet distribution, PD(α,θ)PD(\alpha,\theta). For α(0,1)\alpha\in(0,1), Theorem 3.8 in \cite{Pit(06)} shows that Knnαa.s.Sα,θ\frac{K_n}{n^{\alpha}}\stackrel{\text{a.s.}}{\longrightarrow} S_{\alpha,\theta} as n+n\rightarrow+\infty. Here, Sα,θS_{\alpha,\theta} is a random variable distributed according to the so-called scaled Mittag-Leffler distribution. Our main result states that supx0\ppsf[Knnαx]\ppsf[Sα,θx]C(α,θ)nα \sup_{x \geq 0} \Big| \ppsf\Big[\frac{K_n}{n^{\alpha}} \leq x \Big] - \ppsf[S_{\alpha,\theta} \leq x] \Big| \leq \frac{C(\alpha, \theta)}{n^{\alpha}} holds with an explicit constant C(α,θ)C(\alpha, \theta). The key ingredients of the proof are a novel probabilistic representation of KnK_n as compound distribution and new, refined versions of certain quantitative bounds for the Poisson approximation and the compound Poisson distribution.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1809.09276,
  title  = {A Berry-Esseen theorem for Pitman's $\alpha$-diversity},
  author = {Emanuele Dolera and Stefano Favaro},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1809.09276},
  year   = {2020}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-23T04:17:16.092Z