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Let $Q = (Q_1, \dots, Q_n)$ be a random Gaussian vector, where $Q_i$'s are i.i.d. from $N(0, \sigma^2)$. Consider a sequence $\{Q^k\}_{k=1}^{K}$, and suppose that $Q^k$'s are independent random Gaussian vectors.

What can be said about the following probability? $$\mathbb{P}\left[\left\vert \sum_{k=1}^{K-1} \langle Q^k, Q^{k+1} \rangle \right\vert \ge t\right]$$

smz
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1 Answers1

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By triangle inequality and the fact that for any reals $a_1,\ldots,a_{K-1}$, $\left[\sum_{k=1}^{K-1} a_k \ge t\right]\implies \bigcup_{k=1}^{K-1}\left[ a_k \ge t/(K-1)\right] $ we get $$ \mathbb{P}\left[\left\vert \sum_{k=1}^{K-1} \langle Q^k, Q^{k+1} \rangle \right\vert \ge t\right] \le \sum_{k=1}^{K-1} \mathbb{P}\left[\left\vert \langle Q^k, Q^{k+1} \rangle \right\vert \ge t\right] = (K-1)\mathbb{P}\left[\left\vert \langle Q^1, Q^{2} \rangle \right\vert \ge t/(K-1)\right] $$ Where we used the union bound and the fact that the inner products have the same distribution. Now rename the pair $(Q^1,Q^2)$ as $(X,Y)$ for convenience and note that by polarization identity $$\frac{2}{\sigma^2}\langle X,Y\rangle = (\|X+Y\|^2_2 - \|X-Y\|^2_2)/2\sigma^2 $$ Where $\|\cdot\|_2$ is the standard Euclidean norm. But now since $X$ and $Y$ are independent $\mathcal N(0,\sigma^2\mathbf I_n)$ variables, we have that $(X+Y)/\sqrt 2\sigma $ and $(X-Y)/\sqrt 2\sigma $ are independent $\mathcal N(0,I_n)$ variables (you can easily check that their covariance is $0$).

This tells us that $\frac{2}{\sigma^2}\langle X,Y\rangle = Z - Z'$ where $Z$ and $Z'$ are i.i.d. $\chi^2$ random variables with $n$ degrees of freedom, hence we know that it follows a symmetric about $0$ variance-gamma distribution with parameters $\lambda = n/2$, $\alpha =1/2$ and $\beta=\mu=0$.

Back to our original problem, we get that for all $t'>0$ $$\begin{align}\mathbb{P}\left[2\left\vert \langle X, Y \rangle \right\vert/\sigma^2 \ge 2t'/\sigma^2\right]&\le \mathbb{P}\left[2 \langle X, Y \rangle/\sigma^2 \ge 2t'/\sigma^2\right] +\mathbb{P}\left[2 \langle X, Y \rangle/\sigma^2 \le -2t'/\sigma^2\right]\\ &= 2\mathbb{P}\left[2 \langle X, Y \rangle/\sigma^2 \ge 2t'/\sigma^2\right]\\ &= 2 (1-F_\gamma\left(2t'/\sigma^2\right))\end{align} $$

Where $F_\gamma$ is the CDF of the variance-gamma distribution. Unfortunately, no closed-form expression is known for this CDF, but section 2.2 of this survey provides some bounds and asymptotics.

Letting $t'\equiv t/(K-1)$ we finally find $$\mathbb{P}\left[\left\vert \sum_{k=1}^{K-1} \langle Q^k, Q^{k+1} \rangle \right\vert \ge t\right] \le 2(K-1)\cdot\left(1-F_\gamma\left(\frac{2t}{(K-1)\sigma^2}\right)\right) $$


Another way to look at this is to observe that $\langle X,Y\rangle = \sum_{i=1}^n X_i Y_i$ is sub-exponential as a sum of $n$ products of (sub)-Gaussian random variables. Therefore a bound similar to the one I gave in my answer to your previous question is also possible.

  • Let's say we go with the sub-exponential argument. $\langle Q^{k}, Q^{k+1}\rangle$ is sub-exponential. The sum of $\langle Q^{k}, Q^{k+1}\rangle$'s over $k$ would be sub-exponential as well. But they are not independent, are they? – smz Jan 17 '24 at 18:55
  • they are not independent, but the first equation in my answer shows that the probability that $\left|\sum_k \langle Q^{k}, Q^{k+1}\rangle\right|$ exceeds $t$ is at most $(K-1)$ times the probability that $|\langle Q^{1}, Q^{2}\rangle |$ exceeds $t/(K-1)$ (I forgot the $K-1$ factor in my answer, will edit). And the inner product $\langle Q^{1}, Q^{2}\rangle$ is indeed sub-exponential. I can add some more details later if you need, but you'll have to give me a bit of time. – Stratos supports the strike Jan 17 '24 at 19:10