Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2008 / ia / Paper 2 / 11F / Solution

Write $s=\sqrt{1-{\rho }^2}>0$. The inverse change of variables is $y=\rho x+sz$, whose Jacobian determinant has absolute value $s$. Completing the square givesThe change of variables formula therefore transforms the joint probability density function toIt factors into two normalized standard normal distribution densities. Thus $X$ and $Z$ are independent $N(0,1)$ variables; factorization proves the requested independence, rather than simply zero covariance.

The standard Gaussian random vector $(X,Z)$ has a rotation-invariant density. In polar coordinates, $X=r\cos \theta$, $Z=r\sin \theta$, its density with the area factor is $(2\pi {)}^{-1}r{e}^{-r^2/2}$, so the angular coordinate is uniform on an interval of length $2\pi$.

Put $\alpha =\arcsin \rho \in (-\pi /2,\pi /2)$, so $s=\cos \alpha$ andIn the right half-plane, choose $-\pi /2<\theta <\pi /2$. The additional condition $Y>0$ then requires $-\alpha <\theta <\pi /2$. This wedge has angle $\pi /2+\alpha$; its boundary has probability zero. ConsequentlyAt $\rho =0$ this is $1/4$, as required by independence. The limits as $\rho \to 1$ and $\rho \to -1$ are $1/2$ and zero, respectively. The angular calculation is also the geometric basis of the Gaussian sign-correlation identity.