Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2010 iii Paper 31 4 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
A real functional is Hadamard differentiable at if there exists a continuous linear functional such that, whenever , and in the normed vector space,If is defined only on a subset, require to lie in its domain. The variation of the directions is essential: convergence along each fixed direction alone is a weaker differentiability condition. Tangential Hadamard differentiability restricts the limit directions to a specified subspace; here the derivative is defined on all of .
We prove the functional delta method using compact sets, so do not need an unjustified application of the Skorokhod representation theorem on an arbitrary nonseparable normed vector space. As usual for function-space convergence in distribution, the limiting random element is tight, and the real statistics are measurable, or convergence is understood through outer expectations. These are automatic under the usual separable complete random-element formulation; the empirical-process formulation used below has a tight separably supported limit.
For putHadamard differentiability says for every convergent sequence of directions, since continuity gives . It implies a Hadamard remainder near a compact set: for every compact and there are and such thatTo prove it, suppose it failed. Choose and at distance less than from with . Choose with . A subsequence of converges by compactness, so the corresponding converge too. The defining derivative limit contradicts the lower bound on .
Now let and . Given , tightness of a probability measure provides a compact with . For the open -neighbourhood , the Portmanteau theorem givesOn the preceding uniform remainder is less than for all sufficiently large . Consequently . Since is arbitrary, this remainder tends to zero in probability. We have proved the actual expansionContinuity of and the continuous mapping theorem give . The vanishing remainder and Slutsky theorem therefore yieldThis derivation uses the derivative definition, rather than assuming a uniform Fréchet remainder over every bounded set. If outer expectations are needed, the same compact-neighbourhood argument uses outer probabilities and gives the corresponding empirical-process functional delta method.
For the statistical application, use the sample's empirical distribution function and the plug-in estimatorHere the printed denotes bounded pointwise functions with the supremum norm, namely , rather than equivalence classes modulo Lebesgue null sets. Assume Hadamard differentiability at the true and the usual measurability of the scalar estimator. The Donsker theorem for empirical distribution functions and the proved functional delta method giveNo continuity of is needed for this application. Since the derivative is continuous and linear and the bridge is a centred Gaussian process, is a centred Gaussian real random variable, possibly identically zero.
Finally, a finite real weak limit ensures the required boundedness in probability. Choose so large that . Applying the closed-set part of the Portmanteau theorem to givesHence there is such that, for every ,In particular the upper-tail condition in the question holds. The plug-in estimator has estimation error , even when its limiting variance is zero.