Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2023 iii Paper 210 4 Solution 2026-09-28
The total variation distance and Kullback-Leibler divergence arewith the divergence when is not absolutely continuous with respect to .
One squared-loss form of Assouad's lemma is as follows. Suppose is an Assouad hypercube such thatand every pair of neighboring vertices satisfies . ThenTo prove it, decode from a nearest hypercube vertex. The separation condition converts estimation loss into a constant multiple of its Hamming error. Average this error under the uniform prior on and sum coordinatewise. For each coordinate, the two equally weighted mixtures with that bit equal to zero or one have total variation at most by convexity. The minimum average error of any binary test is , which gives the displayed bound after the nearest-vertex factor.
We now build such a hypercube inside the monotone cone. Let and . Divide the first coordinates into consecutive blocks. For , set on block and extend the remaining coordinates at the last level. If are sufficiently small universal constants, every signal is nondecreasing and belongs to .
Neighboring vertices differ by on one block, so their squared Euclidean separation is . Their product experiments differ only on that block and haveBy Pinsker's inequality, choosing small makes every neighboring total variation distance at most, say, .
Apply Assouad's lemma with normalized squared loss . Here , and henceThis proves the lower half of the minimax rate for isotonic sequence estimation.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2023 iii Paper 218 3 c Solution 2026-09-28
For a likelihood with estimated parameters, the Akaike information criterion iswhere is the maximum-likelihood estimator. Among likelihoods for the same observed response and reference measure, smaller AIC estimates smaller expected out-of-sample Kullback-Leibler divergence up to a model-independent constant.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2023 iii Paper 224 4 a Solution Created 2026-09-28 Updated 2026-10-03
Put and . A relative-entropy form of the Poisson approximation bound for dependent Bernoulli variables isThe last two terms form the total correlation; they vanish when the Bernoulli variables are independent.
To prove the bound, let be the Poisson distribution with mean and let . Expanding the Kullback-Leibler divergence against this product law givesThe supplied one-dimensional estimate bounds the first sum by . Under the addition map, becomes , while the Sum of independent Poisson random variables under has the Poisson distribution with mean . The data processing inequality for relative entropy proves the displayed result.
If a bound directly in the paper's unhalved total-variation norm is desired, Pinsker's inequality also gives
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2023 ii Paper 3 5J Solution Created 2026-09-23 Updated 2026-09-25
A one-parameter exponential family with natural statistic has density or probability mass functionwhere is the natural parameter of an exponential family and is the cumulant function of an exponential family. Its mean parameter is
The exponential-family deviance from to is twice the Kullback-Leibler divergence:The carrier cancels from the likelihood ratio, so, with ,
For the Poisson distribution with mean ,ThereforeWriting and applying the Taylor series of givesso the second-order approximation is
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2024 iii Paper 208 2 a Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
First prove the chain rule for relative entropy. For two coordinates,Taking expectation under givesand iteration proves the chain rule for any finite product.
Write for the successive conditional distributions. Since is a product, the chain rule givesFor a fixed omitted coordinate , applying the chain rule in the remaining coordinate order givesThe convexity of Kullback-Leibler divergence implies that removing from the conditioning can only decrease each averaged conditional divergence. Summing over , each full conditional increment occurs for exactly the indices , and thereforewhich is the claimed inequality. Equivalently, this is Han's entropy inequality after expanding each divergence: the product-reference cross-entropy terms cancel because they are modular.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2024 iii Paper 224 2 b Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
The code-distribution correspondence starts from the Kraft inequality. For codeword lengths putConversely, a probability mass function determines ideal lengths , up to integer rounding. For the source law ,using nonnegativity of Kullback-Leibler divergence and .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2024 iii Paper 224 3 b Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
Define the closed setIt does not contain . Since the probability simplex is compact, has full support, and Kullback-Leibler divergence is continuous and vanishes only at ,The event in the question is exactly . The upper-bound half of Sanov theorem gives probability at most a polynomial factor times , which tends to zero. This proves the weak law of large numbers.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2026 iii Paper 353 2 a iii Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
Let and . ThenBy nonnegativity of Kullback-Leibler divergence,with equality exactly when almost everywhere. Hence a normalizable is the unique minimizer and, because elsewhere, the unique steady density compatible with the boundary condition.
Total variation–Hellinger–relative entropy inequality Created 2026-10-05 Updated 2026-10-06
For the unnormalized Hellinger distance, . Factor and use the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality to bound the total variation distance. For the other bound, gives , whose integral is the squared unnormalized Hellinger distance. Infinite Kullback-Leibler divergence is allowed.
Transport-entropy inequality Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
A transport-entropy inequality controls an optimal expected transportation cost between probability distributions by their Kullback-Leibler divergence.
Two-point lower bound with a triangular bump 2026-10-05
For fixed-design nonparametric regression, compare with . This pair has parameter separation at , Lipschitz bound , and Kullback-Leibler divergence at most . Choosing controls total variation distance by Pinsker's inequality and yields the pointwise minimax rate for Lipschitz regression through the Le Cam two-point lemma.
Variational inference 2026-10-06
Variational inference approximates a posterior distribution by minimizing a Kullback-Leibler divergence over a chosen family of probability distributions. For an unnormalized posterior density and a trial probability density function , minimizing is equivalent to minimizing .