Large deviations of a fixed sum of geometric random variables ($J(s)=s{\min }_i[-\log (1-p_i)](s\ge 0)$)

For fixed finitely many independent geometric random variables, the product large-deviation principle gives rate ${\sum }_i{a}_i{x}_i$ on the nonnegative orthant for their scaled vector, where $a_i=-\log (1-p_i)$. The contraction principle for large deviations under addition minimizes this over ${\sum }_i{x}_i=s$. The answer is $s{\min }_i{a}_i$, achieved by assigning all scaled excess to a coordinate with the slowest geometric tail. The rate is infinite for negative $s$. Deterministic coordinates with $p_i=1$ contribute zero on this scale; if all coordinates are deterministic, only zero has finite rate.