Gaussian sample limsup at logarithmic scale 2026-10-14
For independent standard normal random variables , the displayed limit superior equals two almost surely. The Mills ratio asymptotic gives, for ,The series converges for and diverges for . The two Borel-Cantelli lemmas, applied at countably many thresholds approaching two, give the result. In particular, the value two is also a threshold exceeded infinitely often, despite being the almost-sure limit superior.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2008 iii Paper 34 2 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Write , where is the standard normal density. For , and integration by parts yieldThe boundary term at infinity vanishes. The remainder is nonnegative and is at most , soDividing by the positive quantity gives lower and upper bounds and . The squeeze theorem proves the Mills ratio asymptotic
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2008 iii Paper 34 2 c Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
For and , let . Symmetry of the standard normal distribution and the Mills ratio asymptotic just proved giveFor the series of these probabilities converges, since its terms are eventually bounded by a constant times the convergent p-series . For it diverges: choose strictly between and one, and use for sufficiently large , reducing to the divergent p-series . At it still diverges, as the integral test givesFor , the first Borel-Cantelli lemma makes occur only finitely often. For , independence of the random variables makes the events independent, so the second Borel-Cantelli lemma makes them occur infinitely often almost surely. Apply these conclusions simultaneously at for positive integers , and at . On the resulting probability-one event, the limit superior is at most every and at least two. Therefore the Gaussian sample limsup at logarithmic scale is