arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Christos Pelekis.
We provide a lower bound on the probability that a binomial random variable is exceeding its mean. Our proof employs estimates on the mean absolute deviation and the tail conditional expectation of binomial random variables.
Let $Y_v, v\in V,$ be $[0,1]$-valued random variables having a dependency graph $G=(V,E)$. We show that \[ \mathbb{E}\left[\prod_{v\in V} Y_{v} \right] \leq \prod_{v\in V} \left\{ \mathbb{E}\left[Y_v^{\frac{χ_b}{b}}\right] \right\}^{\frac{b}{χ_b}}, \] where $χ_b$ is the $b$-fold chromatic number of $G$. This inequality may be seen as a dependency-graph analogue of a generalised Hölder inequality, due to Helmut Finner. Additionally, we provide applications of Hölder-type inequalities to concentration and correlation bounds for sums of weakly dependent random variables.
We show that the Bernstein-Hoeffding method can be employed to a larger class of generalized moments. This class includes the exponential moments whose properties play a key role in the proof of a well-known inequality of Wassily Hoeffding, for sums of independent and bounded random variables whose mean is assumed to be known. As a result we can generalise and improve upon this inequality. We show that Hoeffding's bound is optimal in a broader sense. Our approach allows to obtain "missing" factors in Hoeffding's inequality whose existence is motivated by the central limit theorem. The later result is a rather weaker version of a theorem that is due to Michel Talagrand. Using ideas from the theory of Bernstein polynomials, we show that the Bernstein-Hoeffding method can be adapted to case in which one has information on higher moments of the random variables. Moreover, we consider the performance of the method under additional information on the conditional distribution of the random variables and, finally, we show that the method reduces to Markov's inequality when employed to non-negative and unbounded random variables.
Fix positive integers $a$ and $b$ such that $a> b\geq 2$ and a positive real $δ>0$. Let $S$ be a planar set of diameter $δ$ having the following property: for every $a$ points in $S$, at least $b$ of them have pairwise distances that are all less than or equal to $2$. What is the maximum Lebesgue measure of $S$? In this paper we investigate this problem. We discuss the, devious, motivation that leads to its formulation and provide upper bounds on the Lebesgue measure of $S$. Our main result is based on a generalisation of a theorem that is due to Heinrich Jung. In certain instances we are able to find the extremal set but the general case seems elusive.
We provide a systematic approach to deal with the following problem. Let $X_1,\ldots,X_n$ be, possibly dependent, $[0,1]$-valued random variables. What is a sharp upper bound on the probability that their sum is significantly larger than their mean? In the case of independent random variables, a fundamental tool for bounding such probabilities is devised by Wassily Hoeffding. In this paper we consider analogues of Hoeffding's result for sums of dependent random variables for which we have certain information on their dependency structure. We prove a result that yields concentration inequalities for several notions of weak dependence between random variables. Additionally, we obtain a new concentration inequality for sums of, possibly dependent, $[0,1]$-valued random variables, $X_1,\ldots,X_n$, that satisfy the following condition: there exist constants $γ\in (0,1)$ and $δ\in (0,1]$ such that for every subset $A\subseteq \{1,\ldots,n\}$ we have $\mathbb{E}\left[\prod_{i\in A} X_i \prod_{i\notin A}(1-X_i) \right]\leq γ^{|A|} δ^{n-|A|}$, where $|A|$ denotes the cardinality of $A$. Our approach applies to several sums of weakly dependent random variables such as sums of martingale difference sequences, sums of $k$-wise independent random variables and $U$-statistics. Finally, we discuss some applications to the theory of random graphs.
Suppose you can color $n$ \emph{biased} coins with $n$ colors, all coins having the same bias. It is forbidden to color both sides of a coin with the same color, but all other colors are allowed. Let $X$ be the number of different colors after a toss of the coins. We present a method to obtain an upper bound on a median of $X$. Our method is based on the analysis of the probability distribution of the number of vertices with even in-degree in graphs whose edges are given random orientations. Our analysis applies to the distribution of the number of vertices with odd degree in random sub-graphs of fixed graphs. It turns out that there are parity restrictions on the random variables that are under consideration. Hence, in order to present our result, we introduce a class of Bernoulli random variables whose total number of successes is of fixed parity and are closely related to Poisson trials conditional on the event that their outcomes have fixed parity.