Write . The inverse change of variables is , whose Jacobian determinant has absolute value . Completing the square gives
The change of variables formula therefore transforms the joint probability density function to
It factors into two normalized standard normal distribution densities. Thus and are independent variables; factorization proves the requested independence, rather than simply zero covariance.
The standard Gaussian random vector has a rotation-invariant density. In polar coordinates, , , its density with the area factor is , so the angular coordinate is uniform on an interval of length .
Put , so and
In the right half-plane, choose . The additional condition then requires . This wedge has angle ; its boundary has probability zero. Consequently
At this is , as required by independence. The limits as and are and zero, respectively. The angular calculation is also the geometric basis of the Gaussian sign-correlation identity.
Use the positive-support convention for the geometric distribution and put . Differentiating the convergent geometric series gives
Consequently
Subtracting the square of the expectation from the second moment yields
For the die, this is the coupon collector problem. When scores are still missing, let count rolls up to and including the next newly observed score. Every fresh roll has success probability , so has a geometric distribution of parameter . These six successive waiting times are independent: conditional on the entire past at the start of a stage, its waiting-time distribution depends only on the number , not on the identities of the missing scores. Iterated conditioning therefore factors their joint distribution. The total number of rolls is .
Using linearity of expectation gives
Using variance additivity for independent random variables, or the coupon collector waiting-time variance formula just derived by this decomposition, gives
Hence the requested standard deviation is
The hint rounds the sum of squares from to ; using that rounded value gives , consistent at the precision of the hint. The exact computation preserves the slightly more precise value above.
The sampling without replacement makes all unordered pairs equally likely. The count of red-red pairs is , while the count of mixed pairs is . Thus their probabilities satisfy
and cancellation gives . Hence , with three black socks. The count of black-black pairs is also , so
The mixed, red-red and black-black probabilities are respectively , which add to one and verify the given ratio.
Let be one score. It has the discrete uniform distribution on , so its expected value and second moment are
Therefore
For independent throws, linearity of expectation and additivity of variance give and . The sample average consequently has expectation and variance .
The Chebyshev inequality follows by applying the Markov inequality to the nonnegative square of a centered random variable. It gives
This is at most if . Thus suffices, as does every larger integer. This is the smallest integer guaranteed by this particular Chebyshev inequality bound; it need not be the smallest integer satisfying the actual probability requirement.
Choose a uniformly random permutation of and take its initial segments. This produces a Uniformly random maximal chain in a Boolean lattice. A fixed -set belongs to this chain with probability . An antichain meets the chain at most once, so taking the expected value of the number of meetings proves the LYM inequality:
In particular the Sperner theorem bound follows by multiplying each summand by at most the largest binomial coefficient.
For the vector request, an ordering by ordinary subset need not work: distinct vectors may cancel. Instead, write and construct a separated block decomposition for vector subset sums. A block is separated if distinct labeled members have subset sums at distance at least one. We prove that the labeled subsets of can be partitioned into separated blocks, with
blocks of size , for , with .
For the one subset forms one block. Suppose a block of sums has already been constructed for vectors, and let . Choose minimizing in the block. Replace the two copies of the block, with and without the new coordinate, by the following two blocks:
The old labels are retained, so these partition the two copies even if equal sums occur in different blocks. Translation preserves separation in the first translated portion, and the second block is a subset of the old separated block. For the new cross pairs, Cauchy-Schwarz inequality gives
Thus both new blocks are separated. Their sizes are and , omitting an empty block. The resulting size-profile recurrence is , and Pascal's identity verifies the displayed binomial-difference formula, including the even middle boundary. The total number of blocks telescopes to .
A signed sum associated with is . If two signed sums lie in the open ball of radius one, their difference has norm less than two, so their subset sums have distance less than one. At most one can therefore lie in any separated block. Hence the Littlewood-Offord inequality is
The counting is by sign choices, not by distinct numerical values of the sums. The open-ball condition handles the equality-distance boundary correctly.
For the last request take real coefficients. Absorb their signs into the choices , so all coefficients are positive and at least one. A signed-sum real interval of length four corresponds to a subset-sum real interval of length two. A strict three-member inclusion chain would have , which cannot occur in that open real interval. Thus its set family is a k-Sperner family with . Every maximal chain in a Boolean lattice meets it at most twice, yielding . Write , so and . If are the two largest binomial coefficients and is the fraction at a largest level, then . This proves the two-level Littlewood-Offord bound:
It is the greatest possible number uniformly over choices of coefficients and center. For even , take every coefficient equal to one and center : the real interval contains the sum levels , of multiplicities . For odd , take center zero, giving levels , each of multiplicity . These attain the bound. For the only sign choice gives the separate maximum one. Attainment here is at the exhibited centers; it need not hold at every prescribed center.
Index the functions as and write . We first control . Change variables to , average over , and apply Cauchy-Schwarz in , discarding the bounded factor . Expand the squared inner average with the second copy of written , then put . This yields
The right side is real and nonnegative because it arose as an average of squared absolute values. Next use and apply Cauchy-Schwarz in , discarding the bounded derivative. Expanding with a displacement in gives
Finally use and Cauchy-Schwarz in , discarding the bounded double derivative. Expansion with displacement gives
All these changes of variables are bijections without any division in .
Put , where is the torsion subgroup killed by an integer . The variables and are uniform on and , whose indices are . Since the last squared integrand is nonnegative, its restricted average is at most times the unrestricted average over the two increments. By part (i), that unrestricted average is . Hence .
To control , apply the same three eliminations in the order of slopes . The surviving has increments . The last increment is uniform, and only the first is restricted to , so the resulting bound is . Reversing the arithmetic progression by treats and respectively. This proves the four-term progression bound with torsion factors:
For a fixed finite group, this positive constant tends to zero with . In , , so . If multiplication by two and three are bijective, the sharper holds.
A dependence on torsion is necessary if a bound uniform over all finite abelian groups is intended. In , choose independent random signs . A cube with eight distinct vertices has sign product of expectation zero. Each of the twenty-eight possible collisions has probability , so the expectation of is at most . Some sign function therefore has norm at most . But with factors , every arithmetic progression is and its product is . Thus unbounded torsion obstructs uniform control of four-term progressions. The stated fixed-group bound, and the uniform cyclic-group bound needed in part (iii), are unaffected.
The expectations use normalized counting measure on a finite abelian group . This is the finite-group convention implicit in the averaging notation; an arbitrary infinite group has no normalized counting probability measure on all its points. For , define , and let denote complex conjugation. The Gowers U3 norm is
Averaging first over gives the Derivative identity for the Gowers U3 norm
Indeed, if , the average over is . The eighth root is consequently well-defined. Homogeneity follows because the cube has four unconjugated and four conjugated factors, so . If the norm is zero, every squared term in the finite average vanishes. Taking gives , so pointwise. This proves positive definiteness.
For the triangle inequality, we prove the needed Gowers-Cauchy-Schwarz inequality. For eight functions on a product of finite sets , form the box norm multilinear average
Fix a coordinate . After averaging its two variables separately, this is , where uses all vertices with and those with , with the remaining parity conjugations. The Cauchy-Schwarz inequality gives
where replaces the function at each vertex by the original function with its th index set to . Each right-hand average is a squared absolute value averaged over the other coordinates, hence nonnegative. Apply this operation successively for , to every resulting factor. The eight final families each use one original at all vertices. Taking roots gives the box Cauchy-Schwarz inequality
Now take and . With and , these independent variables induce uniform : each such tuple has exactly preimages. Therefore each box norm is the corresponding norm, and the mixed cube obeys
Expand the eight factors in the cube expression for . Its mixed terms are bounded by this inequality, and their bounds sum to . Thus , completing the norm proof.
Two consequences will be useful below. Multiplication by a character of a finite abelian group leaves the norm unchanged, because the alternating character product around a three-dimensional cube equals one. Also
where the last inequality uses the term and . Hence .
A sigma-algebra on is a collection containing , closed under complements relative to , and closed under countable unions. These properties also give closure under countable intersections by De Morgan laws.
Let . Every constituent sigma-algebra contains , so . If , its complement belongs to every , hence to . Likewise, if for all , then belongs to every . Thus is a sigma-algebra. For an empty indexing set, the usual intersection convention gives , which is also a sigma-algebra.
A union need not work. On take
Their union contains and but not , so it is not a sigma-algebra. Put and let be the collection of all sigma-algebras on containing . This collection is nonempty because it contains the power set . By the preceding intersection argument,
is a sigma-algebra containing every , and it is contained in every other such sigma-algebra. This proves existence and minimality.
For the independent random variables, define the tail sigma-algebra by
Fix a tail event . For each , it belongs to , which is independent of . To justify independence of the generated sigma-algebras, first use independence of finite collections on cylinder events, then extend twice by the pi-lambda theorem. In particular, for every and every .
The increasing union is an algebra of sets generating . The collection of satisfying this factorization is a Dynkin system: it contains , is closed under complements, and under countable disjoint unions. The pi-lambda theorem therefore extends the factorization to all . Since , taking gives . Consequently,
This is the Kolmogorov zero-one law, proved here directly.
For each fixed , write for , with . The random variable is finite, so . Adding a real sequence tending to zero changes neither the extended-real limit inferior nor the extended-real limit superior. Hence
The quantities on the right are measurable with respect to : write the limit inferior as and the limit superior as , using countable operations on measurable functions. Therefore both threshold events belong to every such sigma-algebra, and hence are tail events, for every real threshold, including when either limit is infinite.
The final recurrence claim is false under the printed hypotheses. For , let be independent signs with equal probabilities for and , and set . These random variables are independent, have symmetric distributions, and obey . Nevertheless, the geometric series gives, on every sample path,
Thus the proposed repeated-return event has probability zero, even though none of the increments is degenerate. The Kolmogorov zero-one law does not determine which of zero and one occurs.
An additional identical-distribution hypothesis makes the intended conclusion true. Here is a full proof of that qualified version, using the oscillation of a bounded centered iid random walk. Symmetry and integrability give , so is a martingale for its natural filtration. If the common probability distribution is concentrated at zero, every is zero and the conclusion is immediate. Otherwise choose with . The Borel-Cantelli lemmas then give infinitely often almost surely; thus cannot converge to a finite limit.
For , let . Before the sum is below , and at it is at most . The stopped martingale is therefore nonnegative. A stopped integrable martingale remains a martingale at these bounded times, and a nonnegative martingale converges finitely almost surely by the martingale convergence theorem. On this would force to converge finitely, which has just been ruled out. Hence almost surely. Apply the same argument to and take a countable intersection over positive integer . It follows that
There are therefore arbitrarily late passages from above to below . A path with bounded increments of magnitude at most cannot make such a passage without visiting : jumping directly between its two open complementary half-lines would require an increment larger than . There are infinitely many such visits. Thus with the added identical-distribution hypothesis, the intended answer is
For events , define their limit superior by
It is the event that infinitely many occur. The two Borel-Cantelli lemmas are as follows: if , then , without any independence assumption; if the are independent and , then .
For the first assertion, the union bound gives, for every ,
The tail of a convergent nonnegative series tends to zero, proving the first Borel-Cantelli lemma.
For the second assertion, independence and for give
By continuity of probability, . The event that only finitely many occur is the countable union of these zero-probability events over . Its probability is zero. This proves the second Borel-Cantelli lemma, and hence both requested assertions:
For and , let . Symmetry of the standard normal distribution and the Mills ratio asymptotic just proved give
For the series of these probabilities converges, since its terms are eventually bounded by a constant times the convergent p-series . For it diverges: choose strictly between and one, and use for sufficiently large , reducing to the divergent p-series . At it still diverges, as the integral test gives
For , the first Borel-Cantelli lemma makes occur only finitely often. For , independence of the random variables makes the events independent, so the second Borel-Cantelli lemma makes them occur infinitely often almost surely. Apply these conclusions simultaneously at for positive integers , and at . On the resulting probability-one event, the limit superior is at most every and at least two. Therefore the Gaussian sample limsup at logarithmic scale is
The real L2 space on a probability space consists of equivalence classes of measurable functions satisfying , where two random variables represent the same element if they are equal almost surely. Its norm is
Passing to equivalence classes makes this a genuine norm: exactly when almost surely. The Minkowski inequality gives the triangle inequality.
Let be a Cauchy sequence in this norm. Choose an increasing sequence of indices such that
This is possible by choosing beyond a Cauchy threshold for tolerance . Set . The Cauchy-Schwarz inequality on a probability space gives . By Tonelli theorem,
Thus the series of absolute differences is finite almost surely. Define on this probability-one event, and give it the value zero on its complement. It is a measurable function, and almost surely.
For , the Minkowski inequality gives
Apply the Fatou lemma to the squared difference as . It follows that
In particular , and therefore by the Minkowski inequality. This proves convergence in L2 of the subsequence. To recover the entire sequence, for a prescribed choose a Cauchy threshold for , then choose with and . For every ,
Hence , proving completeness of Lp spaces for without assuming the desired completeness in the argument.
The martingale property gives . Both and are square-integrable, so their product is integrable by the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality. Using the -measurability of in conditional expectation gives
The pull-out step for the possibly unbounded can be justified by first truncating it, then passing to the limit in the L2 norm and using the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality. Expanding the square now yields
The left side is nonnegative. Thus is nondecreasing and bounded above by , and so . For ,
By symmetry of the norm difference this proves that is a Cauchy sequence in the L2 space. The completeness established in part (a) gives an with
This is the L2-bounded martingale convergence theorem, derived from martingale-difference orthogonality and completeness. The same sequence also converges almost surely by part (b), since ; uniqueness of a limit in probability identifies that limit with this .
The hitting time is a stopping time for the natural filtration, because . The integer-valued increments are at most one. A path started at zero therefore cannot reach or exceed without first visiting , so
Define . It is nonnegative and integrable: . Moreover,
The indicator function is -measurable, and is independent of with zero expected value. Taking conditional expectation therefore proves directly that is a nonnegative martingale.
The general result used here is that a nonnegative discrete-time martingale has a finite almost-sure limit; this is the martingale convergence theorem, since bounds its L1 norm. On it follows that converges finitely. A convergent sequence of integers is eventually constant, so would eventually be zero on this event.
However, the independent events all have the same strictly positive probability. The second Borel-Cantelli lemma says that they occur infinitely often almost surely. This contradicts eventual constancy on any positive-probability subset of . Thus
Notice that no lower bound on the negative increments was needed.
Values at the endpoint one do not affect any of the conclusions, since . Set to define each random variable everywhere, and choose a Borel measurable function agreeing with almost everywhere if necessary. These choices leave all integrals and almost-sure assertions unchanged.
Every dyadic interval at level lies in a dyadic interval at level . Equivalently, is a measurable function of , so : these sigma-algebras form a filtration. Since the uniform distribution of gives , the conditional expectations are integrable and adapted. The tower property of conditional expectation gives
Thus is a martingale, and part (a) proves that it is uniformly integrable.
For , the event is an atom of a sigma-algebra , with probability . The value of the conditional expectation there is therefore
Consequently This also shows directly that .
By the uniformly integrable martingale convergence theorem, there is an integrable such that almost surely and in the L1 norm. To identify this limit, put . Since away from the harmless endpoint, , and is -measurable. Conversely every is a measurable function of . Thus , and both and have -measurable versions.
For , the defining property of conditional expectation gives whenever . Passing to the limit in the L1 norm yields
The increasing union is an algebra of sets generating . The class of events for which this integral identity holds is a Dynkin system, so the pi-lambda theorem extends the identity to every . Since both random variables are measurable there, uniqueness of conditional expectation gives almost surely. We have proved that the dyadic conditional averages recover integrable functions:
because a probability-one assertion for is a full-Lebesgue measure assertion for . Likewise, the uniform distribution of turns convergence in L1 into
No pointwise continuity of is required.
In a finite game, a profile of independent mixed strategies is a Nash equilibrium if no player can improve their expected payoff by changing only their own mixed strategy. In symbols,
Because expectation is linear in a player's own mixed strategy, checking this inequality for all their pure strategies suffices. Nothing requires the players' payoffs to sum to zero.
For the symmetric finite game, write and . Each is a polynomial in the opponents' independent probabilities and therefore continuous on the probability simplex . Put
This continuous map has nonnegative coordinates summing to one, so it maps the compact convex set into itself. The Brouwer fixed-point theorem gives . At that fixed point . If , every in the strategy support has and therefore . But
whereas every supported term would be strictly positive, a contradiction. Thus , all pure payoffs are at most , and their weighted average equals . Every supported pure strategy is consequently a best response to the common opposing mixed strategy. The profile in which every player uses is a symmetric Nash equilibrium. This proves the gain-map proof of symmetric equilibrium for any finite number of players, including boundary fixed points of the probability simplex.
In the least unique bid auction, let be the common probability of bid 1. Bidding 1 wins only when the other two bids are both 2, and its winning payoff is . Bidding 2 wins only when the other two bids are both 1, and its winning payoff is . Hence the two expected payoffs are
Neither symmetric pure strategy profile is an equilibrium: against two bids of 1 a deviation to 2 earns 1 instead of 0, and against two bids of 2 a deviation to 1 earns 2 instead of 0. An interior symmetric equilibrium must make the two expected payoffs equal. Solving leaves just one root in , giving
The expected payoff to each player is .
To count all nonsymmetric Nash equilibria, let be player 's probability of bidding 1. The difference between their expected payoffs from bids 1 and 2 is
The best response conditions are when , when , and arbitrary when .
For any , the profile satisfies these conditions: , , and . Thus every permutation of this profile is a Nash equilibrium. At these give the six pure profiles with at least one bid of each kind; for , one player mixes freely and the other two use opposite pure strategies.
There are no other nonsymmetric equilibria. If all three probabilities are interior, every must vanish. Subtracting two such equations gives
Since , all probabilities are equal, yielding the symmetric solution already found. If exactly two players mix and the third uses bid 2, either mixer strictly prefers bid 1 because . If the third uses bid 1, either mixer strictly prefers bid 2 because . Both cases are impossible. If exactly one player mixes, their indifference requires the other players to use opposite bids. Finally, with no mixing, the all-equal pure profiles fail and the remaining six satisfy the best response conditions.
Consequently the complete Nash equilibrium set consists of the single symmetric mixed profile together with the six closed one-parameter families given by permutations of . Their endpoints overlap at the six pure equilibria. In particular,
Counting only the six pure ones would miss the interior points of these families in the two-bid three-player least unique bid auction.
Let be the initial call price. Write the risk-neutral probabilities of stock prices as . The stock's martingale equation and the normalization give and . The call pays only in the first state, so its martingale equation is . Thus
All three objective probabilities are positive. This defines an equivalent martingale measure precisely when , and part (iii) proves that every such price excludes arbitrage.
To prove necessity without appealing to an existence theorem, consider the other prices explicitly. If , buy one call and hold units of cash. Its initial value is zero and terminal value is , nonnegative and positive with positive probability. If , take holdings . The initial value is and terminal values at are . They are nonnegative and the middle-state value is strictly positive. This includes the endpoint . Consequently
Let be the given risk-neutral measure, and write . Take to be classical on and continuous at its prescribed terminal value. By Itô formula and the pricing equation for a local volatility model,
so
The discounted added asset is a local martingale, as is , while . Consequently is an equivalent local martingale measure for all three assets.
Here is the arbitrage argument, including the usual admissible trading strategy condition. If is the discounted wealth of a self-financing strategy, it is a stochastic integral against the discounted asset prices, plus its initial value, and hence a local martingale. Assume for a fixed , as required for an admissible trading strategy. For a localizing sequence , the stopped process is a martingale. Apply the conditional Fatou lemma to : for , continuity and the stopped martingale identity give . Thus is a supermartingale. An arbitrage would have , and positive probability of . Equivalence of makes that probability positive under , contradicting . Therefore the augmented market has no admissible arbitrage.
Nonnegativity of gives the needed price process, but does not by itself make its discounted local martingale a true martingale. If is bounded, the latter follows by bounded localization, and its price is also . The arbitrage proof above applies to the stated nonnegative classical solution without assuming that additional bound.
Let for independent and identically distributed random variables with distribution function . Then . Membership in the maximum domain of attraction of a nondegenerate distribution function means that some deterministic and satisfy
or equivalently at every continuity point of .
Under the stated convergence, put , , and . The Slutsky theorem says that combining a sequence with convergence in distribution with sequences converging in probability to constants preserves the corresponding sum, product and ratio limits, provided a limiting denominator is nonzero. Applying it here gives
The limiting distribution function is , continuous for every real because is continuous and . Consequently,
Include all fixed resource states and all measurement records in an environment, so the entire physical protocol has an linear isometry from the unknown input to a larger pure output. If every recipient receives a perfect copy, its reduced density matrix is the pure projector . A pure marginal forces factorization: write a joint vector in a basis beginning with ; its squared components along every orthogonal basis vector vanish because their marginal probabilities are zero. Applying this successively to all recipients gives
where is the fixed initial resource and may depend on the input. This includes Alice's discarded systems and every possible outcome record.
Choose two distinct nonorthogonal pure states, for example and , and write their overlap as . Preservation of the inner product by the linear isometry requires
Normalized environment vectors have overlap of absolute value at most one. Thus would imply , impossible for . Hence perfect transmission of a copy to every recipient is impossible for . This proves the no-cloning theorem obstruction even though Alice keeps no copy herself.
Measuring the state from part (a) in the computational basis succeeds with probability . In the sparse-solution regime , one has . The first success interval with is . Entering it requires , so the first half-probability Grover iterate is
For this integer, the angle is at least and less than , so the rounding cannot skip the required interval. Every smaller nonnegative integer has angle below and hence success below , proving minimality. For , the leading size is . If , the initial measurement already succeeds with probability at least one half and the smallest count is zero; if no search can succeed.