arXiv subjects

Vidmantas Bentkus

Publications and source records attributed to Vidmantas Bentkus.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2011

Bounds for tail probabilities of martingales using skewness and kurtosis

Let $M_n= \fsu X1n$ be a sum of independent random variables such that $ X_k\leq 1$, $\E X_k =0$ and $\E X_k^2=\s_k^2$ for all $k$. Hoeffding 1963, Theorem 3, proved that $$¶{M_n \geq nt}\leq H^n(t,p),\quad H(t,p)= \bgl(1+qt/p\bgr)^{p +qt} \bgl({1-t}\bgr)^{q -qt}$$ with $$q=\ffrac 1{1+\s^2},\quad p=1-q, \quad \s^2 =\ffrac {\s_1^2+...+\s_n^2}n,\quad 0<t<1.$$ Bentkus 2004 improved Hoeffding's inequalities using binomial tails as upper bounds. Let $\ga_k =\E X_k^3/\s_k^3$ and $ \vk_k= \E X_k^4/\s_k^4$ stand for the skewness and kurtosis of $X_k$. In this paper we prove (improved) counterparts of the Hoeffding inequality replacing $\s^2$ by certain functions of $\fs \ga 1n$ respectively $\fs \vk 1n$. Our bounds extend to a general setting where $X_k$ are martingale differences, and they can combine the knowledge of skewness and/or kurtosis and/or variances of ~$X_k$. Up to factors bounded by $e^2/2$ the bounds are final. All our results are new since no inequalities incorporating skewness or kurtosis control so far are known.

math.PR↗

arXiv2009

On normal approximations to $U$-statistics

Let ${X_1,...,X_n}$ be i.i.d. random observations. Let $\mathbb{S}=\mathbb{L}+\mathbb{T}$ be a $U$-statistic of order $k\ge2$ where $\mathbb{L}$ is a linear statistic having asymptotic normal distribution, and $\mathbb{T}$ is a stochastically smaller statistic. We show that the rate of convergence to normality for $\mathbb{S}$ can be simply expressed as the rate of convergence to normality for the linear part $\mathbb{L}$ plus a correction term, $(\operatorname {var}\mathbb{T})\ln^2(\operatorname {var}\mathbb{T})$, under the condition ${\mathbb{E}\mathbb{T}^2<\infty}$. An optimal bound without this $\log$ factor is obtained under a lower moment assumption ${\mathbb {E}|\mathbb{T}|^α<\infty}$ for ${α<2}$. Some other related results are also obtained in the paper. Our results extend, refine and yield a number of related-known results in the literature.

math.PR↗

arXiv2004

On Hoeffding's inequalities

In a celebrated work by Hoeffding [J. Amer. Statist. Assoc. 58 (1963) 13-30], several inequalities for tail probabilities of sums M_n=X_1+... +X_n of bounded independent random variables X_j were proved. These inequalities had a considerable impact on the development of probability and statistics, and remained unimproved until 1995 when Talagrand [Inst. Hautes Etudes Sci. Publ. Math. 81 (1995a) 73-205] inserted certain missing factors in the bounds of two theorems. By similar factors, a third theorem was refined by Pinelis [Progress in Probability 43 (1998) 257-314] and refined (and extended) by me. In this article, I introduce a new type of inequality. Namely, I show that P{M_n\geq x}\leq cP{S_n\geq x}, where c is an absolute constant and S_n=ε_1+... +ε_n is a sum of independent identically distributed Bernoulli random variables (a random variable is called Bernoulli if it assumes at most two values). The inequality holds for those x\in R where the survival function x\mapsto P{S_n\geq x} has a jump down. For the remaining x the inequality still holds provided that the function between the adjacent jump points is interpolated linearly or \log-linearly. If it is necessary, to estimate P{S_n\geq x} special bounds can be used for binomial probabilities. The results extend to martingales with bounded differences. It is apparent that Theorem 1.1 of this article is the most important.

math.PR↗

arXiv1999

Lattice point problems and distribution of values of quadratic forms

For d-dimensional irrational ellipsoids E with d >= 9 we show that the number of lattice points in rE is approximated by the volume of rE, as r tends to infinity, up to an error of order o(r^{d-2}). The estimate refines an earlier authors' bound of order O(r^{d-2}) which holds for arbitrary ellipsoids, and is optimal for rational ellipsoids. As an application we prove a conjecture of Davenport and Lewis that the gaps between successive values, say s 0 as s -> \infty, for d >= 9. For comparison note that sup_s (n(s)-s) < \infty and \inf_s (n(s)-s) >0, for rational Q[x] and d>= 5. As a corollary we derive Oppenheim's conjecture for indefinite irrational quadratic forms, i.e., the set Q[Z^d] is dense in R, for d >= 9, which was proved for d >= 3 by G. Margulis in 1986 using other methods. Finally, we provide explicit bounds for errors in terms of certain characteristics of trigonometric sums.

math.NT↗