Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 201 3 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
Let . Since ,Permuting preserves their joint probability distribution and leaves every generator of unchanged. Therefore, for each bounded -measurable ,This is the symmetry of exchangeable random variables. By the defining identity of conditional expectation, all are equal almost surely. Summing these conditional expectations and using that is -measurable givesHence the conditional expectation of a summand given future partial sums isThe integrability of each justifies every conditional expectation above.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 202 4 i Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
Use the standard definition of a local martingale, including an integrable initial value, and let be a localizing sequence. If , the Fatou lemma gives . For , the Conditional Fatou lemma givesFor clarity, the Conditional Fatou lemma itself follows by setting for nonnegative , applying the conditional version of the monotone convergence theorem to , and observing . Hence a nonnegative local martingale is a supermartingale.
If simultaneously for all , with a deterministic , the dominated convergence theorem applied to the stopped martingale identity gives, for each ,This is exactly the conditional expectation identity, so a bounded local martingale is a true martingale. The same proof works for deterministic bounds on every finite time interval; merely having a finite random pathwise bound supplies no dominating integrable random variable and is a different convention.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 207 6 v Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
For the exponential distribution with mean , and . ThereforeSince ties have probability zero, . Taking expected values in the definition of givesThere is also an imputation interpretation. If A is observed first, ; if B censors A, memorylessness of the exponential distribution and independence imply that the remaining mean lifetime is . Thus is the conditional expectation of given the observed minimum and censoring indicator. The tower property of conditional expectation gives the same equality. This does not say that and have the same distribution.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 211 2 c Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
Take an increasing localizing sequence for and define the stopping timesThe predictable process condition makes a stopping time. For each fixed finite time range, the finitely many coefficients are finite almost surely; hence almost surely.
The stopped martingale transform can be writtenIts coefficient is -measurable and bounded in absolute value by . Each summand is consequently integrable with zero conditional expectation given , since is a true martingale. Thus is a true martingale andThe original PDF fixes ; the TeX extraction omits this equality.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 213 3 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
Use the slotted ALOHA model with one outstanding packet per active station and a collision channel: a slot with exactly one attempt succeeds, whereas an idle slot or a slot with two or more attempts delivers nothing. Let be independent Poisson random variables of mean , independent also of the transmission choices. Arrivals join after the current slot's attempts. Given , the attempt count has a binomial distribution with parameters and . Consequently, for ,For , set and . The equation adds arrivals and removes precisely one packet following a successful slot. The estimate controls the common transmission probability and updates using the idle, success, or collision feedback. The conditional distribution of the next state depends only on , so this pair is a Markov chain.
Away from the reflecting floor in , its one-step conditional expectations areWhen and are large with , the Poisson limit theorem gives and . Treating these approximate drifts as derivatives motivates the fluid approximation of slotted ALOHA:The floor at is negligible in this interior scaling. This calculation motivates the ordinary differential equations; it is not a proof of a stochastic fluid limit.
The function is strictly increasing from zero to infinity, and . To check the monotonicity explicitly,Indeed, with ,because its discriminant is ; and . Thus the scalar ordinary differential equation for points toward the unique value satisfying . Every trajectory with , has bounded and . Positivity of follows from .
If , then and . Thus decays exponentially for large , andThis is finite-time draining of a fluid model. The unmodified equations have undefined at the origin, so the statement that trajectories converge to the origin needs this endpoint interpretation; continuing with an absorbing zero trajectory is an additional fluid-model convention, not a solution of the displayed equations at the origin.
If , then and . Now grows exponentially, physical time tends to infinity, andIn particular the trajectory escapes to infinity. Even without the ratio analysis, , since .
For the actual Markov chain, it is essential not to replace the finite- success probability by : a single backlogged packet can succeed with probability one. Instead, for , maximizing over gives the ALOHA throughput boundIf , choose and so that for all , uniformly in . For sufficiently small ,because its derivative at zero is . Independence of arrivals and attempts giveswhenever . For any integer , stop at the stopping time . The stopped process is a nonnegative supermartingale. The optional stopping theorem, first at bounded times and then by a limit, yields the exponential-supermartingale escape boundFrom every state with , a Poisson distribution arrival burst has a uniformly positive probability of sending the next backlog to at least , for any fixed . From there the probability of never revisiting is at least . By the Markov property at successive visits, the probability of infinitely many visits to this strip is zero: each visit has a uniform positive chance of being the last. This holds for every integer , soTherefore the Markov chain is transient for every finite choice of . The proof is uniform in and does not infer stochastic transience merely from the approximate ordinary differential equations.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 338 3 a i Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
First include the mean-gain calculation preceding the numbered clauses. At each electron-multiplying CCD stage one electron contributes an expected electrons to the next stage. If is the charge after stage , conditional expectation gives . Iteration from input electrons yieldsFor small , if corrections of order are negligible.
In the high-gain approximation the output from one input electron has an exponential distribution of scale . Independent input electrons produce independent cascades, and their charges add. By convolution of independent random variables, assuming the formula for inputs,Together with the single-electron base case this provesIt is a gamma distribution with shape and scale , so it is normalized and has expected value and variance . The formula is a continuous approximation to discrete output charge, not an exact integer-valued branching distribution; for there is a point mass at zero instead.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 ii Paper 3 29K c iii Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-03
Assume (iii). Fix , a coordinate , and an event . Choose the bounded predictable risky strategyand choose the numéraire holding to make the strategy self-financing with . Its terminal discounted value isCondition (iii) yieldsfor every . The defining property of conditional expectation impliesEvery coordinate is therefore a -martingale, so (iii) (i). This proves the martingale characterization by bounded self-financing strategies.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2019 iii Paper 147 3 ii Solution 2026-10-03
Give the uniform probability measure and let be the indicator function of the edge set. For partitions and , define the energyBecause conditional expectation is an orthogonal projection in L2 space, .
Suppose the pair of partitions is not -regular. For each irregular choose witnesses and withRefine each by all sets and each by all sets . If the old partitions have cells, the refined ones have at most cells.
The Pythagorean theorem for the two nested conditional-expectation projections givesInside an irregular , the witness rectangle occupies at least an proportion and the mean of the displayed difference over it has magnitude greater than . The Cauchy-Schwarz inequality therefore gives an energy gain greater thanfrom that pair. Since irregular pairs have total weight greater than , the complete refinement raises the energy by more than .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2019 ii Paper 1 30K c iii Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-29
Assume (iii). Fix and , and defineThis is a stopping time: . Applying (iii) at time first to and then to the deterministic stopping time givesSubtracting yieldsBy the defining characterization of conditional expectation, this says . Thus is a martingale, proving (i). Together the three implications establish the characterization of a martingale by stopped expectations.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2019 ii Paper 1 30K c i Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-29
Assume (i), and let be a stopping time. The increments of the stopped process satisfyBecause , taking conditional expectation given makes the right-hand side zero. Integrability follows froma finite sum of integrable random variables. Hence is a martingale, proving (ii).
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2019 ii Paper 4 29K b Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-03
The arbitrage-free value of the discounted claim is the conditional expectationConditional on the observed path , the future multiplicative increments are independent of and have the same law as a fresh stock path divided by its initial value. ThereforewhereThis is Risk-neutral valuation in the Cox--Ross--Rubinstein model for a path-dependent claim.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2021 iii Paper 201 1 a Solution 2026-09-28
For an integrable random variable and a sub-sigma-algebra , the conditional expectation is an integrable, -measurable random variable satisfyingfor every .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2022 iii Paper 208 2 a Solution 2026-09-28
Write for all coordinates except , let be an independent random variable with the same distribution as , and let . Three equivalent forms of the Efron–Stein inequality arefor arbitrary square-integrable measurable with respect to , andThe first is the sharp choice within the second because conditional expectation is the least-squares projection. The first and third right sides are equal because two conditionally independent copies have expected squared difference twice their conditional variance.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2022 iii Paper 219 2 a Solution 2026-09-28
The vector is Jointly Gaussian. Assuming , Gaussian conditional independence givesThus the required condition is . Under it, conditioning on supplies no further information after , and the Gaussian process regression posterior isBoth the conditional expectation and conditional variance depend only on ; neither contains or .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2023 iii Paper 216 1 c Solution 2026-09-28
For a decision in the unit ball, conditional expectation under the posterior givesThe symmetric positive semidefinite matrix has a Rayleigh quotient maximized over by any unit eigenvector corresponding to its largest eigenvalue. Bayes decision rule therefore chooses any such eigenvector for the stated utility.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2024 iii Paper 202 2 c ii Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-03
Let . It is a continuous square-integrable martingale, and the assumed bracket identity givesfor every continuous square-integrable martingale . Choose and use part (i):Thus almost surely, and the conditional expectation property gives for every . Hence up to indistinguishability of stochastic processes.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2025 iii Paper 201 3 a Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
The conditional expectation is the almost surely unique integrable, -measurable random variable such that for every .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2026 iii Paper 201 1 a Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
The finite sigma-algebra is partitioned by the nonempty eventsThese are its atoms. Define the random variableand give it any finite value on the union of the null atoms. It is -measurable and integrable. Every is a union of atoms, soThis constructs the requested variable directly, without invoking the general existence theorem for conditional expectation.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2026 iii Paper 202 4 b Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
With zero interest rate, the bank account is constant. The risky asset is a continuous local martingale by assumption, while the European contingent claim priceis a true martingale by the defining property of conditional expectation. Thus the original probability measure is an equivalent local martingale measure for all traded discounted prices. The fundamental theorem of asset pricing then excludes arbitrage for admissible self-financing strategies.
Poisson mixture Created 2026-10-05 Updated 2026-10-07
A model with for a nonnegative random intensity. Conditional expectation and total variance give and , explaining overdispersion. A Poisson-gamma mixture gives the negative binomial distribution.