Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-graph-theory-and-probabilistic-combinatorics-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2011/b/4/a/solution

Markov's inequality states that for and , . It follows by taking expectations in .
If has finite mean and variance , apply Markov to to obtain Chebyshev's inequality:
For the first moment method, assume . Nonnegative integer values give , so
For a standard second moment method, suppose eventually, the second moments are finite, and . Equivalently, . The zero event is contained in , so
Hence . The second-moment condition controls the fluctuations relative to the mean; a large mean alone is insufficient.

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