Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2016 / ia / Paper 2 / 4F / Solution

The moment-generating function of a random variable $Z$ is $m_Z(\theta )=\mathbb{E}[e^{\theta Z}]$, at the real values of $\theta$ for which that expectation is finite. For a standard normal distribution variable $X$, combining the exponentials in its probability density function yieldsThe last equality follows by scaling the Gaussian integral. The variables $X_i^2$ are independent random variables, so the expectation of their product factorizes. ThereforeThis is the moment-generating function of a chi-squared distribution with $n$ degrees of freedom. For positive $n$ the defining integral diverges at and above $\theta =1/2$.