Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2014 iii Paper 30 3 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
The ordinary column Gram matrix is . Use the normalized empirical Gram matrixso that standard Gaussian entries give . This is the normalization needed for concentration around .
The restricted isometry property of order with constant means that the normalized map approximately preserves the Euclidean norm of all vectors with at most nonzero coordinates:Equivalently, every principal block with satisfies . The least such is its restricted isometry constant. In the unnormalized definition apply this property to itself.
For a standard normal variable , direct Gaussian integration gives for . Independence therefore yields the moment-generating function of a chi-squared distribution, centred here at its mean:The inequality follows from . For , the Chernoff bound with givesAt the trivial probability bound suffices. This proves the requested bound, with a stronger prefactor one.
For the lower tail, gives for . Taking yields . Combining both tails gives the useful chi-squared concentration inequalityFor set . A direct calculation showsThus the exponent is at least , provingThe same threshold bounds the two-sided tail.
Finally fix a deterministic and put . If , independence of the Gaussian rows gives independently. ThereforeThe two-sided bound just proved suppliesFor the quadratic form is deterministically zero; the strict inequality makes the formula valid in that case too. When , replacing the threshold by gives an absolute bound independent of . In particular every fixed such direction concentrates at rate for a fixed confidence level. The restricted isometry property requires a simultaneous statement over sparse directions; this fixed-direction calculation alone is not that stronger assertion.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 340 4 c Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
The printed definition of the restricted isometry constant omits the quantifier: the two inequalities must hold for every vector with at most nonzero entries. The constant is the smallest nonnegative value, or the infimum over positive values; it can be zero.
Let and . The restricted isometry property of order says for every supported on . Since is a Hermitian matrix, the finite-dimensional spectral theorem implies . Disjoint supports give , henceThis argument works over and avoids the loss of a factor caused by treating real and imaginary parts separately.