Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2019 / ia / Paper 2 / 11F / a / iii

The covariance matrix isIf $\mathrm{Cov}(X_1,X_2)=0$, the moment-generating function in part (ii) factors into the product of the two marginal moment-generating functions. Thus $X_1$ and $X_2$ are independent random variables; this is the independence of uncorrelated jointly normal variables.

By bilinearity of covariance,ChooseThen $(X_1,Y)$ is bivariate normal by part (i) and has zero covariance, so $Y$ is a normal random variable independent of $X_1$. Hence $X_2=a{X}_1+Y$.