Use the independent product measure on the finite coordinate spaces. For , let be the convex hull of its mismatch vectors , . The distance in the question equals
To verify this, let be the nearest point. Any unit vector satisfies . Conversely the projection property gives equality for when . If , nonnegative weights give supremum zero. Linear functionals have the same minimum on the hull as on its original vectors, so this is exactly the quantified definition of the Talagrand convex distance.
We prove the stronger section induction for the Talagrand exponential moment,
Zero-probability atoms may be discarded, replacing by its supported part: this preserves its probability and can only increase its distance. Thus assume all coordinate atoms have positive mass. The induction starts with zero coordinates, when a positive-probability event is the singleton space and its distance is zero.
Split the last coordinate into values , with probabilities , and write for the corresponding section in the first coordinates. Put , choose a largest section of probability , and set . For a point , mix nearest mismatch vectors from and with weights . Their final coordinates are zero and, if , one. Convexity of the squared norm gives
For an empty , use directly. If , the final-coordinate term is an unnecessary nonnegative allowance, so the bound still holds.
Exponentiate, integrate in , and use Hölder's inequality and the induction hypothesis. For this gives
We supply the scalar estimate for Talagrand product induction used in the last step. Set . For , choose , making the expression . The function
has and
Thus . For , choose , giving ; the already proved boundary case and monotonicity of give the same bound. For , the direct empty-section bound is .
Now average over . With , the exponential integral is at most . Since , this is at most , closing the induction.
Finally apply the Markov inequality to the nonnegative exponential. For the distance-tail event ,
This proves Talagrand's convex distance inequality for the finite product. If , the required probability-product inequality is immediate, including the empty-event case with distance defined as infinity; no finite exponential-moment assertion is needed there.