Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 201 3 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
The tail sigma-algebra isIts events depend only on arbitrarily late coordinates. The Kolmogorov zero-one law states that for a sequence of independent random variables, every tail event has probability zero or one:Identical probability distributions and integrability are not required for the Kolmogorov zero-one law.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 201 3 c Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
The sigma-algebras decrease with , and (b) gives . The permitted reverse martingale convergence theorem therefore gives an integrable random variable such that almost surely and with convergence in L1. In particular,It remains to prove that is constant. We must not assume that is the tail sigma-algebra of the ; instead use tail measurability of limits of sample averages directly. Define the random variable valued in the extended real numbers . For every fixed ,because pointwise. Thus is measurable with respect to for every , and hence to the tail sigma-algebra. Also almost surely.
By the Kolmogorov zero-one law, each tail event , for a rational number , has probability zero or one. Since is finite almost surely, its distribution function can only be that of a constant : taking and using the density of the rational numbers gives almost surely. Its expected value identifies . This proves the strong law of large numbers:
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2026 iii Paper 212 2 c ii Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
Let the energy of a flow be , with each unoriented edge counted once. Expanding as in part (i), dropping orientation signs, and summing over common edges givesuniformly in .
Part (i), , and the Paley-Zygmund inequality give a constant such that for every . The preceding uniform expectation bound and Markov inequality allow a constant such thatOn this event, is a unit open flow from to with energy at most .
The events that there is such a bounded-energy unit flow from out of are decreasing in . Their intersection still has probability at least . A diagonal compactness argument produces on this intersection a unit flow from to infinity, supported on its open cluster, with finite energy. The finite-energy flow criterion for transience makes that open cluster transient.
Thus a transient open cluster exists with positive probability. This existence event is a tail event: changing finitely many edges cannot destroy transience in every infinite component, because transience is invariant under finite graph modifications. The Kolmogorov zero-one law upgrades its probability to one.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2026 iii Paper 217 1 Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
Because is measurable for the cylinder sigma-algebra, membership in depends on only countably many coordinates . Its image in is a measurable linear subspace , and
By successively applying the finite-dimensional Gaussian regression formula, realize this Gaussian sequence as a lower-triangular linear transform of independent standard normal variables:where every coordinate of the sum contains only finitely many terms. If some deterministic column does not belong to , then, after conditioning on every except , at most one value of can put the sum in . The continuous normal distribution gives probability zero. If every belongs to , changing finitely many does not change the membership event. It is then a tail event, and the Kolmogorov zero-one law gives probability zero or one. This proves the Gaussian zero-one law for measurable linear subspaces.
Now let for independent standard normal variables . DefineBoth are cylinder-measurable infinite-dimensional linear subspaces. For every ,so the Borel-Cantelli lemmas imply almost surely and hence . On the other hand, infinitely often almost surely, again by Borel-Cantelli, soalmost surely. Therefore .
Tail event Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
A tail event is an event , where is the tail sigma-algebra of the chosen sequence of random variables. It concerns information available arbitrarily far along the sequence. In the measurable coordinate models described in finite-prefix invariance of tail events, any finite edit preserves whether it occurs.
This is stronger than merely needing a long waiting time. On , with denoting heads, let , taking if there is no head. The eventis not a tail event: changing only from zero to one changes membership. Under fair independent Bernoulli trials its probability is . Even the event , of probability one in this model, is not a tail event as a literal set: the all-zero sequence and the sequence with just one initial head differ in one coordinate. A probability of zero or one does not characterize tail events.
Delete the first environment factors from the path-weight expectation and call the result . Pointwise, . Thus equals and belongs to every future-time environment sigma-algebra. The Kolmogorov zero-one law makes its probability zero or one. If the nonnegative martingale limit has mean one, the probability cannot be one, so its limit is strictly positive almost surely. The pointwise comparison establishes a genuine tail event, rather than merely invariance outside an unspecified exceptional set.
Tail measurability of limits of sample averages Created 2026-10-05 Updated 2026-10-14
Let be a sequence of finite real random variables, and write for its sample mean. For fixed and , put . Then, at each outcome,Consequently . The right-hand limit superior is a measurable function of for every , so the extended-real random variable is measurable with respect to the tail sigma-algebra. The same holds for the limit inferior. Thus the event of convergence to a finite limit of a sequence, and the event for any specified real , are tail events.
For a worked deterministic example, let alternate , and replace its first three entries by . For every the two sample means differ by exactly , so both converge to . Finite edits can change small-sample answers while preserving the infinite limit of a sequence.
Under independence, Kolmogorov's zero–one law makes each specified convergence event have probability zero or one. It does not select which value occurs. If a finite random variable measurable with respect to the tail sigma-algebra exists, the events for rational each have probability zero or one; continuity of probability and their nesting force to be constant almost surely. For fair independent Bernoulli trials, the strong law of large numbers establishes almost surely; the zero–one conclusion alone proves neither convergence nor the value .
Tail sigma-algebra Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
For a sequence of random variables on a probability space , defineThe decreasing sigma-algebras are generated by the listed random variables. Their intersection consists of events expressible after discarding every finite prefix. No independence is required.[ref]
Probability: Theory and Examples (fifth edition) by Rick Durrett. Probability: Theory and Examples (fifth edition), §2.5 Convergence of Random Series, printed p. 81: definition of the tail sigma-field
The point is to distinguish a long observation record from a property of an infinite sequence. The event of seeing infinitely many heads and the event that sample means converge survive any finite change, while an exact first-head time does not. Kolmogorov's zero–one law adds the striking conclusion that under independence each tail event has probability zero or one; the tail sigma-algebra itself can still contain many nonempty sets.