Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-probability-statistics-and-options-i-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2008/o/2/solution

Differentiating the least-squares residual norm gives the normal equations
If has full column rank, , and therefore
Here and , so the design matrix and its Gram matrix are
The centered predictor columns are perpendicular, giving
Both estimates are linear combinations of the jointly normal errors, hence jointly normal. Zero covariance therefore also gives independence. The normality assumption is what permits this last step; orthogonality alone would only prove uncorrelatedness.

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