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A complete sufficient statistic is independent of every ancillary statistic. To prove this, let $S$ be complete and sufficient, let $A$ be ancillary, and take any bounded measurable function $h$. By sufficiency, $g(S)=E_{\theta }[h(A)\mid S]$ has a parameter-independent version; by ancillarity, $c=E_{\theta }h(A)$ is independent of $\theta$. Thus $E_{\theta }[g(S)-c]=0$ for every $\theta$. Completeness gives $g(S)=c$ almost surely. Choosing $h$ to be the indicator of each measurable event in the ancillary space proves independence. Completeness is essential: a sufficient statistic may itself contain a nonconstant ancillary, as in the minimum and maximum of a uniform location sample.

A statistic is complete for a parameter family if the displayed implication holds for every measurable $g$ integrable under all parameter values. This property does not itself assert sufficiency; a complete sufficient statistic has both properties. A nonconstant unbiased estimator of a known constant provides a direct obstruction to completeness.

An unbiased estimator that is a function of a complete sufficient statistic is the unique uniformly minimum-variance unbiased estimator, up to almost sure equality. Rao-Blackwellization supplies variance reduction, and completeness supplies uniqueness. The theorem applies to a conditional statistical experiment as well, when unbiasedness, sufficiency and completeness are all evaluated under that conditional family.

An ancillary statistic has a sampling distribution independent of the unknown parameter. It describes a realized aspect of the sample configuration without supplying a marginal likelihood for the parameter. Its observed value can nevertheless be crucial to the precision of inference from the rest of the data. In a transitive transformation model, invariance gives a common distribution under every parameter value, so maximal invariants provide natural ancillaries, such as the standardized configuration in a location-scale family.

Conditional inference uses the sampling distribution of an estimator or sufficient statistic conditional on the observed ancillary. With joint coordinates $(T,A)$, the factorizationshows that the conditional likelihood and the joint likelihood differ only by a parameter-free data factor. Conditional reference distributions, confidence intervals and p-values can still differ markedly from unconditional ones, because they adapt to the realized configuration. For a continuous ancillary one uses a regular conditional distribution or conditional density; dividing by the zero probability of a single ancillary value is not a valid definition.

An exact example makes this adaptation visible. Let independent observations be uniform on $(\theta -1/2,\theta +1/2)$, with $n\ge 2$. Put $U=X_{(1)}$, $V=X_{(n)}$, $R=V-U$ and $C=(U+V)/2$. Specifying the minimum and maximum contributes $n(n-1)$ choices of observations, while each remaining observation must lie between them. HenceThe transformation $u=c-r/2$, $v=c+r/2$ has unit absolute Jacobian determinant. Its support is $0<r<1$, $|c-\theta |<(1-r)/2$. Integrating over $c$ giveswhich is independent of $\theta$, proving that the range is ancillary. Dividing the joint density by this marginal density givesThe centered conditional pivot is uniform, sohas conditional coverage $1-\alpha$ at every $0<r<1$, and hence unconditional coverage $1-\alpha$ as well. A large realized range leaves little room for translating the interval and gives more precise inference. This is range-conditioned uniform location inference. The range and center are not independent: the conditional spread depends on the range, even though the range is ancillary.

Completeness can give independence in other models. Suppose $S$ is a complete sufficient statistic and $A$ is ancillary. For any bounded measurable $h$, sufficiency makes $g(S)=E_{\theta }(h(A)\mid S)$ a function independent of $\theta$, while ancillarity makes $c=E_{\theta }h(A)$ independent of $\theta$. Since $E_{\theta }(g(S)-c)=0$ for every $\theta$, completeness implies $g(S)=c$ almost surely. Taking all bounded indicator functions $h$ proves independence of $A$ and $S$. This is the content of Basu's theorem, with the proof displaying precisely where sufficiency and completeness are used. Without completeness the conclusion fails: in the uniform location example the minimum and maximum are sufficient, and contain the nondegenerate ancillary range.

There are practical qualifications. Ancillaries need not be unique, and some models supply only approximate ancillary coordinates; one must specify the conditioning surface and the accuracy intended. Conditioning on a statistic sufficient for a nuisance parameter is a different device: it may remove that nuisance even though the statistic is not ancillary for the full parameter. Conditioning indiscriminately can discard useful information. In higher-order likelihood inference, the ancillary coordinates specify how the fitted data are varied, entering both the p* density and the sample derivatives in the modified profile likelihood. Their role is therefore substantive, rather than merely a label for an extra statistic.

Both alternatives can be made explicit. For a conditional bias-corrected normal mean estimate, let $m$ be the observed pooled estimate and $w=n_1/n_2$, with $0<w<1$. Invert its conditional mean:This can be solved by bracketing or by Newton iteration $d_{k+1}=d_k-[g(d_k)-m]/g^{\prime }(d_k)$. Since $r^{\prime }(x)=-r(x)[x+r(x)]$,The variance of a standard normal conditional on exceeding $-x$ is $1-r(x)[x+r(x)]$, strictly between zero and one. Positivity follows from nondegeneracy; the upper bound follows because the conditional mean $r(x)$ exceeds the truncation threshold $-x$. Hence $1-w<g^{\prime }(d)<1$, so the equation has at most one root. As $d\to \infty$, $g(d)\sim d$; as $d\to -\infty$, the truncated stage-1 mean approaches its threshold and $g(d)\sim (1-w)d+w{f}_1/\sqrt{I_1}$, so a root exists for every finite $m$. Equivalently, differentiating the conditional likelihood divides the ordinary likelihood by ${\mathrm{Pr}}_d(C)$ and gives the same score equation. This conditional-likelihood correction is not exactly conditionally unbiased merely because it inverts a mean.

For an illustration, take $I_1=1$, $w=1/2$, $f_1=0$ and $m=0.5$. The equation is $d+\frac{1}{2}\varphi (d)/\Phi (d)=0.5$. Since $g(0)=0.39894$ and $g(0.5)\simeq 0.75458$, the corrected estimate lies between zero and $0.5$; numerical solution gives $\tilde{\delta }\simeq 0.14649$, below the selected ordinary estimate.

For the uniform minimum variance conditionally unbiased estimator, put $I_2=n_2/(2{\sigma }^2)$, $J=I_2-I_1>0$, $A={\hat{\delta }}_1$ and $V={\hat{\delta }}_2^{\ast }$. The fresh estimate $V$ is conditionally unbiased because it is independent of continuation. LetBefore selection, conditional Gaussian calculations give $A\mid T=t\sim N(t,s^2)$. Conditional on $C$ as well, this normal variable is truncated below $c$, soUsing $V=(I_{2}T-I_{1}A)/J$, Rao-Blackwellization therefore givesIts conditional expectation is $\mathbb{E}[V\mid C]=\delta$, and its conditional variance cannot exceed that of $V$. To justify uniform minimum variance, the joint conditional density of $(A,V)$ is a base density on $\{A\ge c\}$ multiplied by $\exp (\delta I_{2}T-{\delta }^2{I}_2/2)/{\mathrm{Pr}}_{\delta }(C)$. Thus $T$ is a complete sufficient statistic in the one-parameter conditional exponential family, whose natural parameter ranges over an open real interval. The Lehmann–Scheffé theorem proves the claim. The orthogonal pooled arm-average statistic is independent of the entire difference process and carries the nuisance common mean. Together with $T$, it gives a complete sufficient statistic in the selected two-parameter normal family, with an open natural-parameter space. Thus allowing that nuisance statistic does not improve the conditional unbiased estimate of the difference. For the same illustration, $I_2=2$, $J=1$ and $s=1/\sqrt{2}$ give ${\hat{\delta }}_{\mathrm{U}}\simeq 0.21102$. It differs from the conditional-likelihood estimate because exact conditional unbiasedness is a different criterion.

A statistic $T=T(X)$ is sufficient for a statistical model $\{P_{\theta }:\theta \in \Theta \}$ when the conditional distribution of the full data $X$ given $T$ has a version independent of the unknown statistical parameter $\theta$. Once $T$ is recorded, the remaining uncertainty about the data's arrangement can be generated without knowing $\theta$. ^[ref]

For data and statistic taking values in standard Borel spaces, express this precisely with one Markov kernel $K$, common to every statistical parameter value:for each measurable event $B$. Thus $K(t,\cdot )$ is a regular conditional distribution of $X$ given $T=t$. Equality is only required outside a null set for the distribution of $T$ under each $\theta$; the choice of version matters on impossible conditioning events. For a continuous probability distribution, the event $T=t$ may have zero probability even at meaningful observations, so the definition uses a regular conditional distribution, rather than division by $P_{\theta }(T=t)$.

A sufficient statistic is a property of a specified statistical model, rather than of a formula for summarizing data in isolation. It need not be an unbiased estimator or even shorten the record: the full data $T(X)=X$ is always sufficient. An estimator instead targets a quantity such as a mean. An ancillary statistic has a parameter-independent marginal probability distribution, whereas a sufficient statistic has a parameter-independent conditional full-data law. A minimal sufficient statistic permits the greatest reduction among sufficient statistics. A complete statistic satisfies a separate condition about zero expectations; a complete sufficient statistic must satisfy both conditions.

An unbiased estimator $T$ is uniformly minimum-variance unbiased if its variance is no larger than that of every other unbiased estimator of the same parameter, for every parameter value. The Lehmann–Scheffé theorem gives such an estimator whenever an unbiased function of a complete sufficient statistic exists. Attaining the Cramér-Rao bound is sufficient for this property under its hypotheses, but is not necessary: for $T\sim \Gamma (n,\lambda )$ with $n>2$, $(n-1)/T$ is unbiased and has variance ${\lambda }^2/(n-2)$, while the information bound is ${\lambda }^2/n$. Completeness follows from uniqueness of the Laplace transform of $h(t)t^{n-1}$, so the estimator is still uniformly optimal among unbiased estimators.

A UMVCUE has minimum conditional variance among all estimators unbiased in the selected experiment for every parameter. For independent Gaussian stage estimates $A,V$ with information $I_1,J$, continuation $A\ge c$, total information $I_2=I_1+J$ and pooled estimate $T$, Rao-Blackwellization of the fresh estimate gives $T-(I_{1}s/J)\varphi ((T-c)/s)/\Phi ((T-c)/s)$, where $s^2=1/I_1-1/I_2$. The conditional family has complete sufficient statistic $T$, so the Lehmann–Scheffé theorem establishes the optimum. A conditional-likelihood bias correction does not automatically have this unbiasedness property.