For a nonnegative random variable with finite mean and , the part of the expectation on is at most . Subtracting gives . If the second moment is positive and finite, applying the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality to and the indicator variable gives the Paley-Zygmund inequality .
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The Paley–Zygmund inequality is a result in probability theory, specifically in the context of the study of random variables and their moments. It provides a bound on the probability that a non-negative random variable is significantly greater than its expected value.