Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2016 / iii / Paper 207 / 1 / b / i / Solution

The three independent sample means satisfy ${\overline{Y}}_i\sim \mathcal{N}({\mu }_i,v_i)$. A linear transformation of their joint multivariate normal distribution is again normal. The two treatment contrasts have covarianceWriting $m_i={\delta }_i/s_i$ and $\rho =v_0/(s_1{s}_2)$, their joint distribution isThe positive correlation coefficient arises from the shared control arm. Under positive variances, $0<\rho <1$.