Normal-gamma posterior with a flat prior ($\pi (u,\gamma \mid m)$)

Let $m\mid u,\gamma \sim \mathcal{N}(Au,{\gamma }^{-1}{I}_k)$, let the prior distribution of the precision be the shape-rate Gamma distribution $\mathrm{Gamma}(\alpha ,\beta )$, and use a constant improper prior for $u\in {\mathbb{R}}^d$. Assume $A$ has zero null space. Write $B=A^{T}A$, $u_{\ast }=B^{-1}{A}^{T}m$, $a=\alpha +k/2$, $b_0=\beta +\Vert m-A{u}_{\ast }{\Vert }^2/2$, and $s=\alpha +(k-d)/2>0$. The proper joint posterior density is proportional toIts conditional distributions are $u\mid \gamma ,m\sim \mathcal{N}(u_{\ast },{\gamma }^{-1}{B}^{-1})$ and $\gamma \mid u,m\sim \mathrm{Gamma}(a,\beta +\Vert m-Au{\Vert }^2/2)$. Its marginal precision law is $\mathrm{Gamma}(s,b_0)$. Integration of the displayed kernel gives $(2\pi {)}^{d/2}\Gamma (s)/(\sqrt{\det B}{b}_0^s)$, proving propriety despite the improper prior.

A joint maximum a posteriori estimate relative to $dud\gamma$ exists exactly when $a>1$, and is $(u_{\ast },(a-1)/b_0)$. If $a=1$, the supremum is approached at $\gamma =0$ but not attained; if $a<1$, the density is unbounded there. Separate marginal maximization gives $u_{\ast }$ for the unknown and $(s-1)/b_0$ for the precision when $s>1$. This illustrates that joint and marginal modes need not agree, and that a proper posterior distribution need not have a mode in its open parameter space.