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I've been trying to figure out nontrivial conditions for continuous functions of continuous random variables to themselves be continuous random variables without much success. Here's what I know so far:

  1. Continuous functions of continuous random variables are random variables, see this thread
  2. Continuous functions of continuous random variables needn't be continuous random variables in general, see this counterexample.
  3. Strictly monotonic functions of continuous random variables are continuous random variables

Are there more general conditions under which a continuous/smooth/analytic function of a continuous random variable is itself a continuous random variable?

Ultimately, what I am after is the following: if $\Omega$ is a continuous random variable with a bounded density function and $f$ is a continuous/smooth/analytic function, then what are some general conditions for the density function of $f(\Omega)$, if it exists, to be bounded?

Edit: As per @Malkin's comments, I want to clarify that by a continuous random variable, I mean a random variable that has a continuous cumulative distribution function (c.d.f.). I am also interested in the case when the c.d.f. is absolutely continuous, see the previous paragraph.

  • I have changed my answer so that it uses a better definition of a continuous random variable. Could you please confirm that this is the definition that you are using? – Malkin Aug 10 '18 at 13:17
  • @Malkin Thanks for your efforts! I have clarified the definition of a continuous random variable I am using in the question as per your comments. – madnessweasley Aug 10 '18 at 15:05

1 Answers1

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Claim 1:

If $f$ is any function that is constant on some interval $I$ then there exists a continuous random variable $X$ such that $f(X)$ is not a continuous random variable.

Proof:

Suppose $f$ is constant on $I=[a,b]$ with $a \neq b$ and let $X \sim N(0,1)$. Put $$\varepsilon :=P(X \in I)>0$$ $$Y:=f(X)$$ $$F_Y(x)=P(Y \leq x)$$ $$x_0:=f(a)=f(b)$$ Then $\forall \, \delta>0$ we have:

$$ \begin{align} \vert F_Y(x_0)-F_Y(x_0-\delta) \vert &= P \left( Y \in (x_0-\delta, x_0]\right) \\ &= P \left( f(X) \in (x_0-\delta,x_0] \right) \\ &\geq P \left( f(X) =x_0 \right) \\ &\geq P \left( X \in I \right) \\ &= \varepsilon \end{align} $$

Hence $F_Y$ is not continuous at $x_0$ and $f(X)$ is not a continuous random variable.

Claim 2:

If $f$ is any real analytic function that is not constant on any interval $I \subset \mathbb{R}$ then $f(X)$ is a continuous random variable for any continuous random variable $X$.

Proof:

Let $X$ be a continuous random variable with CDF $F_X$ and let $U\subset \mathbb{R}$ be the range of $f$. Define $Y := f(X)$ and let $F_Y$ be the CDF of $Y$, so that $F_Y$ has domain $U$. We will show that $F_Y$ is continuous.

Let $\varepsilon>0$ and $x_0 \in U$.

By simple properties of random variables, $P(\vert X \vert > M) \rightarrow 0$ as $M \rightarrow \infty$. Pick $M$ such that $P(\vert X \vert > M) < \frac{\varepsilon}{2}$.

Now consider $S=f^{-1}(\{x_0\})$. Because $f$ is not constant on any interval, $S$ consists of countably many points: $S=\{s_i\}_{i \in J}$ for some $J \subset \mathbb{N}$.

Define $S':=S \cap [-M,M]$. Suppose $S'$ contains infinitely many points. Then, since $S'$ is bounded, there exists a subsequence $(s_{i_n})_{n \in \mathbb{N}}$ such that $s_{i_n} \rightarrow c$ for some $c \in S'$. Since $f(s_{i_n})=x_0 \, \forall \, n$ by Rolle's Theorem we have a sequence $(r_n)_{n \in \mathbb{N}}$ with $s_{i_n} \leq r_n<s_{i_{n+1}}$ and $f'(r_n)=0 \, \forall \, n$. Also $s_{i_n} \rightarrow c \implies r_n \rightarrow c$. But by this reasoning, such a sequence $(r_n)$ cannot exist for an analytic function $f$. And so $S'$ must only contain finitely many points. Re-label them $S'=\{s'_i\}_{i=1}^N$.

$F_X$ continuous $\implies$ for each $s'_i \, \exists \, \delta_i>0$ s.t. $\vert F_X(x)-F_X(y) \vert < \frac{\varepsilon}{2N} \, \, \forall \, x,y \in (s'_i-\delta_i, s'_i+ \delta_i)$

Consider $f'(s'_i)$. Suppose $f'(s'_i)=0$. Since $f$ is not constant on any interval and since $f'$ is differentiable, $\exists \, \gamma_i>0$ s.t. $f$ is monotonic on $(s'_i,s'_i+\gamma_i)$ and monotonic on $(s'_i-\gamma_i,s'_i)$. If instead $f'(s'_i) \neq 0$ then again $\exists \, \gamma_i>0$ s.t. $f$ is monotonic on $(s'_i,s'_i+\gamma_i)$ and monotonic on $(s'_i-\gamma_i,s'_i)$. (See the answer here for a justification.)

Define $k:=\frac{1}{2}\min\{\delta_i,\gamma_i \}_i$ and $t:=\frac{1}{2} \min\{\vert f(s'_i+k)-f(s'_i)\vert ,\vert f(s'_i-k)-f(s'_i)\vert \}_i$.

Constructing $k$ and $t$ in this way gives us that $(s'_i-k, s'_i+ k) \subset (s'_i-\delta_i, s'_i+ \delta_i) \, \forall \, i$ ; that $f$ is monotonic on $(s'_i-k, s'_i) \, \forall \, i$ and separately on $(s'_i, s'_i+ k) \, \forall \, i $ ; and then that $(x_0-t,x_0+t]=(f(s'_i)-t,f(s'_i)+t] \subset f((s'_i-k,s'_i+k])\, \forall \, i$. These facts will be used in the working below.

Let $x \in (x_0-t,x_0 + t)$. Then:

$$ \begin{align} \vert F_Y(x)-F_Y(x_0) \vert &\leq P \left( Y \in (x_0-t,x_0+t] \right) \\ &= P \left( f(X) \in (x_0-t,x_0+t] \right) \\ &= P \left( X \in f^{-1}((x_0-t,x_0+t]) \right) \\ &\leq P \left( X \in f^{-1}((x_0-t,x_0+t]) \cap [-M,M] \right) + P(\vert X \vert > M) \\ &= P \left( X \in f^{-1}((x_0-t,x_0+t]) \cap [-M,M] \right) + \frac{\varepsilon}{2} \\ &\leq P \left( X \in \bigcup_i (s'_i-k,s'_i+k] \right) + \frac{\varepsilon}{2} \\ &\leq \sum_i \vert F_X(s'_i+k)-F_X(s'_i-k) \vert + \frac{\varepsilon}{2} \\ &\leq \sum_i \frac{\varepsilon}{2N}+ \frac{\varepsilon}{2} \\ &= \frac{\varepsilon}{2} + \frac{\varepsilon}{2} \\ &= \varepsilon \end{align} $$

Hence $F_Y$ is continuous.

We may conclude that $f(X)$ is a continuous random variable.

Malkin
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    Thanks for your answer. Am I correct in understanding that this only provides a necessary condition on the function $f$? – madnessweasley Aug 10 '18 at 15:08
  • Yes, you're right, it's only halfway done. We have that if $f$ is a continuous function s.t. $f(X)$ is a continuous r.v. for any continuous r.v. $X$ then $f$ cannot be constant on any interval. We don't quite have that if $f$ is any continuous function that isn't constant on any interval then $f(X)$ is a continuous r.v. for any continuous r.v. $X$... – Malkin Aug 10 '18 at 15:16
  • I have a feeling that if $f$ is a smooth/analytic function which isn't constant on any interval and $X$ is a continuous r.v., then $f(X)$ will be a continuous r.v. because $f(x) = c$ cannot have uncountably infinite number of solutions for any $c \in \mathbb{R}$. – madnessweasley Aug 10 '18 at 15:24
  • If we use the definition of a continuous r.v. that the c.d.f. is absolutely continuous, then maybe countably infinite turning points doesn't hurt us since the union of a countably infinite set of measure zero is measure zero? – madnessweasley Aug 10 '18 at 17:46
  • @madnessweasley I think I've done it! I have edited the answer to prove that if $f$ is analytic and not constant on any interval then $f(X)$ is a continuous r.v. I reckon there's a more elegant proof out there, but I'm confident that this chunky one works. – Malkin Aug 12 '18 at 19:32
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    Thanks again for your efforts! It looks like there might be some hope for replacing the condition "f is analytic and is nonconstant on any interval" with "f has a finite number of critical points" plus some milder differentiability conditions... – madnessweasley Aug 12 '18 at 21:37
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    Yes, "$f$ has a finite number of stationary points and is twice differentiable" could replace "$f$ is analytic and not constant on any interval" – Malkin Aug 13 '18 at 16:11