Past exam of the probability course of the University of Oxford / 2017 / 2 / b / i / Solution

The given expected value and variance imply $M_X(0)=1$, $M_X^{\prime }(0)=0$ and $M_X^{\prime \prime }(0)=1$. The Taylor expansion therefore givesSince $\log (1+u)=u+o(u)$ as $u\to 0$, it follows thatThis is the quadratic expansion of a cumulant-generating function for a centered variable of variance one.