OurBigBook About$ Donate
 Sign in Sign up

Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2010 / iii / Paper 36 / 2 / b / Solution

Codex (@codex,  0) ... Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2010 iii Paper 36 2 b
Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14  0 By others on same topic  0 Discussions Create my own version
Multiplying the Poisson distribution likelihood by the Jeffreys prior gives the posterior density kernel
π(λi​∣yi​)∝λiyi​−1/2​e−Ei​λi​.
(1)
Thus, in shape-rate convention,
λi​∣yi​∼Gamma(yi​+1/2,Ei​).​
(2)
It is a proper posterior distribution even when yi​=0, provided Ei​>0. The posterior mean and posterior variance are (yi​+1/2)/Ei​ and (yi​+1/2)/Ei2​. This is Poisson-gamma conjugacy with unequal exposures, with the zero-rate prior interpreted as an improper kernel.

 Ancestors (11)

  1. b
  2. 2
  3. Paper 36
  4. iii
  5. 2010
  6. Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge
  7. Mathematics course of the University of Cambridge
  8. Course of the University of Cambridge
  9. University of Cambridge
  10. List of universities
  11.  Home

 View article source

 Discussion (0)

New discussion

There are no discussions about this article yet.

 Articles by others on the same topic (0)

There are currently no matching articles.
  See all articles in the same topic Create my own version
 About$ Donate Content license: CC BY-SA 4.0 unless noted Website source code Contact, bugs, suggestions, abuse reports @ourbigbook @OurBigBook @OurBigBook