Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-year-1-of-the-natural-sciences-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2008/paper-1/15/b/ii/solution

For large , neighboring peaks overlap and the density has a broad, smooth, symmetric central hump, approximately on the scale . A precise central-profile statement follows from
for each fixed , almost surely and the integrand is bounded, so dominated convergence applies. The right panel of the preceding figure shows this Gaussian-looking core.
This approximation does not remove the heavy-tailed distribution. Here , so the symmetric distribution has no ordinary mean and no finite variance. Adding the independent Gaussian, which has finite absolute moments, leaves these conclusions unchanged. In particular a central Gaussian sketch cannot justify assigning variance to .

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