Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2019 ib Paper 1 7H b Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-29
An unbiased estimator of a parameter satisfies for every permissible value of . Since the sample mean is linear,so is unbiased.
Use the identityThe two expectations on the right are and , respectively. HenceThusThe unbiased sample variance instead divides the same sum of squares by .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2019 ib Paper 3 20H a Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-29
The sample mean isWrite the Gaussian sample vector as its orthogonal projection onto the span of plus its projection onto the orthogonal complement. These two Gaussian projections are independent. Their squared standardized lengths give Cochran's theorem:
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2019 ii Paper 1 29J c Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-29
Because every column of has sample mean zero, every column of also has sample mean zero. The spectral theorem for real symmetric matrices givesHence for the sample covariance is , while the sample variance of isThus the are pairwise uncorrelated sample principal components, ordered by decreasing sample variance.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2020 ib Paper 1 19H b Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-29
A statistic is sufficient for if the conditional distribution of the full sample given does not depend on . It is minimal sufficient if it is a function of every sufficient statistic.
The likelihood factors asso the Fisher-Neyman factorization theorem shows that , and hence its one-to-one transform , is sufficient. Moreover, for two samples and , the ratio is independent of exactly when their maxima agree. The likelihood-ratio criterion for minimal sufficiency therefore shows that and are minimal sufficient.
For , the sample mean is not sufficient: two samples can have the same mean but different maxima, and their likelihood ratio then depends on through the support indicators. It is consequently not minimal sufficient. For the degenerate special case , the sample mean and maximum coincide and both conclusions reverse.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2020 ii Paper 1 29J Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-29
Let have regular density , letbe its score function, and letbe its Fisher information. Regularity gives the mean-zero score identity .
Suppose an estimator has mean . Differentiating under the integral givesThe Cauchy-Schwarz inequality therefore yieldsand hence the Cramer-Rao boundIn particular, an unbiased estimator of has variance at least . For an independent sample, the information is the sum of the individual informations.
Now let be independent variables with , under squared-error loss. The sample mean is unbiased with variance , sofor every . Thus the minimax value is at most .
For the matching lower bound, choose a continuously differentiable density on that vanishes at both endpoints and has finite prior informationfor example, . For , define the priorIt is supported inside the parameter space, and its information is .
Here the likelihood score iswhose Fisher information is . For any decision rule , combine it with the prior score to form the joint scoreIntegration by parts in , with no boundary term because vanishes there, givesThe likelihood score has conditional mean zero, so its cross term with the prior score vanishes andCauchy--Schwarz now proves the Van Trees inequality in this case:The worst-case risk dominates every integrated risk, and thereforeLetting shows that every rule has worst-case risk at least . Since attains that value, the result on the minimax sample mean for a nonnegative normal location is