Canonical gradient 2026-10-07
The canonical gradient is the influence-function representer in the statistical tangent space . It equals the orthogonal projection onto of any representer. Every other representer differs from it by an element of , so the Pythagorean theorem in an inner-product space gives it minimum variance. For in an unrestricted density model with bounded , it is .
Efficient information 2026-10-07
The efficient information for a scalar target statistical parameter is the squared L2 norm of its efficient score. It cannot exceed the parametric Fisher information, by the Pythagorean theorem in an inner-product space. It can vanish when first-order target variation can be reproduced by nuisance variation.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2004 ib Paper 4 1E Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2012 iii Paper 36 2 d Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
For a pathwise differentiable statistical functional, an influence-function representer is a mean-zero function such that every admissible score function satisfies . The efficient influence function, also called the canonical gradient, is the unique such representer in the statistical tangent space. Equivalently, it is the orthogonal projection of any representer onto that statistical tangent space. The Pythagorean theorem in an inner-product space shows that it has the smallest squared L2 norm among all representers.
Here the statistical tangent space is all of . To verify the closure explicitly, take , truncate it to , and set . Then is bounded and centered, and in , by dominated convergence and the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality. Part (c) supplies a representer already in this space. HenceIts variance is .
The closure must be taken in the density-weighted space . An unweighted reading of in the printed hint is false. For example, when , the function has and , so bounded centered truncations converge to it in ; nevertheless . This illustrates density of bounded centered scores and fixes the measure in the closure statement.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2020 ib Paper 2 18H a Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-03
Because has full column rank, is invertible. The ordinary least squares estimator isIt satisfies the normal equationsso the residual is orthogonal to the column space of . For any ,The two terms are orthogonal, and the Pythagorean theorem in an inner-product space givesThus minimizes the least-squares objective.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2023 ib Paper 4 6B a Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
The nonzero orthogonal polynomials have distinct degrees and form an orthogonal basis of . DefineFor each ,Thus the residual is orthogonal to all of .
For any , writeThe two terms are orthogonal, so the Pythagorean theorem in an inner-product space givesEquality holds only for . This proves the formula and uniqueness of the least-squares polynomial in an orthogonal-polynomial basis.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2023 ib Paper 4 6B b Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
Part (a) shows that is orthogonal to . Sincethe Pythagorean theorem in an inner-product space immediately givesThis is the norm decomposition associated with orthogonal projection onto a finite-dimensional subspace.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2024 iii Paper 318 5 1 a Solution 2026-09-25
Suppose first that is orthogonal to . Every can be written with . The Pythagorean theorem in an inner-product space givesThus is a best approximation.
Conversely, if minimizes the distance, then for every the quadratichas its minimum at . Differentiating there gives in the real case; varying real and imaginary parts gives the complex case. Therefore
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2024 iii Paper 318 5 2 c Solution 2026-09-25
For any admissible , part (a) rewrites the constraints asHence is orthogonal to every and therefore to their span, which contains . The Pythagorean theorem in an inner-product space givesChoose any -fold antiderivative of . The identity from part (a) and show that satisfies all prescribed divided differences, and equality holds in the norm bound. Thereforecharacterizes the minimizers. They are unique up to addition of an arbitrary polynomial in , which changes neither the order- divided differences nor the th derivative.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2025 iii Paper 201 3 b Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
Conditional expectation is the orthogonal projection from onto . The difference is orthogonal to every -measurable square-integrable variable, including . The Pythagorean theorem in an inner-product space applied togives the identity.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2026 iii Paper 205 3 Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
A real positive-semidefinite kernel is a symmetric function such that every finite Gram matrix is positive semidefinite. The representer theorem says that any minimizer in a Reproducing-kernel Hilbert space of an objective depending on only through and a strictly increasing function of lies inIndeed, write relative to this span. The reproducing property gives for every , while the Pythagorean theorem in an inner-product space gives . Removing a nonzero perpendicular component preserves all data values and strictly decreases the penalty, proving the theorem.
Apply this decomposition to both optimizers and write and . If and are the two Gram matrices, thenWriting and , with pseudoinverses on the respective ranges, turns the supremum into