Normal likelihood with variance equal to squared mean

ID: normal-likelihood-with-variance-equal-to-squared-mean

For independent normal distribution observations with mean and variance , put , . The Fisher-Neyman factorization theorem makes a sufficient statistic, since the likelihood is proportional to . Its logarithmic derivative has numerator . When , this changes sign once on the positive half-line and gives the displayed global maximum-likelihood estimator. The zero sample is a probability-zero exception with unbounded likelihood as .

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