Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2004 iii Paper 31 2 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Write and . Then . The large deviation principle on the whole space forces ; compact sublevel sets and lower semicontinuity make that infimum attained. The unique possible zero is therefore mu, and .
If a closed set C contains mu, its new infimum rate is zero and the claimed upper bound follows from probabilities being at most one. If it excludes mu, then , possibly infinite: otherwise a sequence of rates tending to zero would have a convergent subsequence in a compact sublevel set, with limit in C and zero rate, contradicting uniqueness. This is the fact that a good rate function is separated from zero away from its minimizer.
Choose any . The original upper bound gives for all sufficiently large n. ThusTogether these cases prove the closed-set upper bound at the slower speed, with rate zero only at mu. Its finite sublevels are the compact singleton , so it is a good rate function.