Approximation by mixtures of multivariate Erlang distributions

Abstract

We prove that finite multivariate Erlang mixture densities with a common rate parameter are dense in the class of probability densities on $\mathbb{R}_{+}^{d}$ that belong to $L^{p}$, for every dimension $d\in\mathbb{N}$ and every $1\le p<\infty$. The argument is constructive: the one-dimensional Sz\'asz--Mirakjan--Kantorovich operator yields Erlang mixture approximations, and its tensor product yields multivariate approximants with a common scale. We then obtain several quantitative consequences. These include compact-set uniform approximation bounds and, under local H\"older conditions of order $\alpha\in(0,1]$, rates of order $n^{-\alpha/2}$ as the common scale $1/n$ tends to zero, whole-domain convergence in weighted sup norms, weighted and unweighted $L^{p}$ rates, and explicit rates for finite mixtures indexed by the number of mixture components. In particular, if the approximating density is required to have at most $K$ mixture components, then on fixed compact cubes we obtain an algebraic rate of order $K^{-\alpha/(2d)}$; in global weighted sup norms we obtain the explicit algebraic component-count rate $K^{-\alpha/[2d(2d+\alpha)]}$; and for $1<p<\infty$ we obtain corresponding weighted $L^{p}$ component-count rates. The results strengthen the weak-approximation theory for multivariate Erlang mixture distributions and yield immediate corollaries for broader classes such as product-gamma mixtures. \noindent\textbf{Keywords:} multivariate Erlang mixtures; Erlang distributions; Sz\'asz--Mirakjan--Kantorovich operator; density approximation; weighted $L^{p}$ approximation; approximation rates.