Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 iii Paper 210 1 c Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Put and . Use the scan statistic and the statistical hypothesis testing ruleThe union bound and the Hoeffding inequality give , since . Conditional on index , accepting the null hypothesis implies . The assumed separation gives , so this threshold lies more than below the alternative expected value . The lower-tail Hoeffding inequality therefore gives . Averaging the conditional error over the mixture model gives as well.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 iii Paper 210 2 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Use the convention for the centered sub-Gaussian random variable. Applying the two-sided Chernoff bound to gives . Since , this already supplies the requested bound:For averages of independent random variables, the stronger useful statement is that the centered square of a sub-Gaussian random variable is a sub-exponential random variable. The Bernstein bound for independent sub-exponential variables then give for a universal positive . These are the concentration theorems used for quadratic scan statistics.