Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2023 iii Paper 224 1 b Solution 2026-09-28
Write . Since and the geometric random variable have the same expected value ,This is also the entropy deficit relative to the maximum entropy distribution on the nonnegative integers.
The random variables and are independent, so part a gives . Consequentlywhich is the required bound in terms of the Entropic Ruzsa distance.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2026 iii Paper 224 4 a Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
For , let be the geometric distributionIf is the law of , Gibbs inequality givesThereforeFor , the nonnegative random variable is zero almost surely and both sides vanish. This proves that the maximum entropy distribution on the nonnegative integers with fixed expected value is geometric.