Gaussian maximum 2026-10-06
For independent standard normal random variables , the maximum of has scale . A union bound and the Gaussian tail bound give the upper scale. Integrating the normal density over gives a lower tail bound , implying .
The printed assertion is false as a supremum bound uniform over shrinking bandwidths. The supplied hint proves a pointwise stochastic order with constants uniform in . Taking the supremum inside the probability changes the problem: a growing number of spatial windows produces a logarithmic cost. We first establish the valid consequence of the hint, then give a counterexample satisfying the printed assumptions.
For , let , and . The Invariant distribution of an Itô diffusion has a probability density function bounded above and bounded away from zero on the required compact interval. Choosing therefore gives constants such that , uniformly for and .
For the centered function , . Outside , . The given second-moment estimate and the Chebyshev inequality yield
On the event , the drift coefficient contributes an average whose error is at most , by Hölder continuity. The Itô isometry and stationarity give . Another use of the Chebyshev inequality proves
This also accounts for the zero-denominator convention through the first exceptional event. The bound proves pointwise , uniformly in the location's tail probabilities. It supplies no bound for the probability of a supremum over all locations.
For an explicit counterexample, take and the bounded globally Lipschitz function
It has Lipschitz constant , exponent , and satisfies the inward-drift conditions with , . The stochastic differential equation has a unique strong solution of a stochastic differential equation. Its Invariant distribution of an Itô diffusion has density
The exponent is zero on , equals when , and equals outside . This verifies integrability, positivity and a constant density on the central interval. Start the Itô diffusion in this Invariant distribution of an Itô diffusion to obtain the required stationary process.
Set and choose windows with centers , . Their intervals are disjoint and lie in , where the drift is zero. Write
Then whenever . The same occupation bound as above gives for . With , a union bound and the Chebyshev inequality imply
The quadratic variations are , and the cross quadratic covariations vanish since the windows are disjoint. Each clock tends to infinity almost surely: for any fixed window, the occupation estimate at times , followed by the Borel-Cantelli lemmas, gives . The Knight theorem for orthogonal martingales therefore represents using independent standard Brownian motions . This theorem is applied to the finite collection for each ; no growing-dimensional central limit theorem is being assumed.
On the preceding clock event, compare each time-changed Brownian motion with its value at deterministic time . The Brownian reflection principle and a union bound show that, for every fixed ,
This bound does not require the Brownian motions to be independent of their clocks. In particular, in probability. The variables are independent random variables. Their Gaussian maximum exceeds with probability tending to one: for , integration of the normal density over gives , and hence
Since on the clock event, it follows that, for some ,
But for this bandwidth. Thus the error after subtraction of and multiplication by is not bounded in probability, contradicting the printed stochastic order. The valid pointwise bound above is provable; the uniform shrinking-bandwidth assertion is not. This counterexample shows why a uniform rate needs at least a enlargement of the noise scale. If is instead held fixed and constants may depend on , this counterexample does not contradict that different interpretation.