Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2006/iii/paper-46/1/c/solution

Assume an independent Gaussian sample, positive-definite population covariance, and . Define the sample mean and unbiased sample covariance matrix by
The standard test is based on Hotelling's T-squared statistic
Reject the null hypothesis for large values. Under the null its exact distribution is
The factor uses the unbiased, divisor- covariance convention. Normal-sample theory makes independent of the residual covariance, whose whitened version has a Wishart distribution; this yields the stated F-distribution. The condition gives invertibility of almost surely and positive denominator degrees of freedom.
This is also the likelihood-ratio test. To see the connection, put and . The maximized covariance estimates under the unrestricted and null models are and , respectively. The determinant identity for a rank-one update gives
Thus the likelihood ratio is , decreasing in . The term best is understood here as this standard likelihood-ratio, affine-invariant procedure; a two-sided multidimensional alternative does not specify a single direction to optimize power against.
For the transformed sample , with the prescribed nonsingular coordinate transformation, we have
Consequently
This proves the affine invariance of Hotelling's statistic. The statistic, its p-value and its test decision are unchanged by a nonsingular affine transformation, provided the null mean is transformed with the data. Changes of units and rotations are included.

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