This paper is concerned with the Stein's method associated with a (possibly) asymmetric $α$-stable distribution $Z$, in dimension one. More precisely, its goal is twofold. In the first part, we exhibit a genuine bound for the Wasserstein distance between $Z$ and any integrable random variable $X$, in terms of an operator that reduces to the classical fractional Laplacian in the symmetric case. Then, in the second part we apply the aforementioned bound to compute error rates in the stable central limit theorem, when the entries are in the domain $\mathcal{D}_α$ of normal attraction of a stable law of exponent $α$. To conclude, we study the specific case where the entries are Pareto like multiplied by a slowly varying function, which provides an example of random variables that do not belong to $\mathcal{D}_α$, but for which our approach continues to apply.
We use a multivariate version of Stein's method to establish a quantitative Lindeberg CLT for the Fourier transforms of random $N$-vectors. We achieve this by deducing a specific integral representation for the Hessian matrix of a solution to the Stein equation with test function $e_t(x) = \exp(- i \sum_{k=1}^N t_k x_k)$, where $t,x \in \mathbb{R}^N$.
We use Stein's method to prove a generalization of the Lindeberg-Feller CLT providing an upper and a lower bound for the superior limit of the Kolmogorov distance between a normally distributed random variable and the rowwise sums of a rowwise independent triangular array of random variables which is asymptotically negligible in the sense of Feller. A natural example shows that the upper bound is of optimal order. The lower bound improves a result by Andrew Barbour and Peter Hall.
This paper is concerned with normal approximation under relaxed moment conditions using Stein's method. We obtain the explicit rates of convergence in the central limit theorem for (i) nonlinear statistics with finite absolute moment of order $2+δ\in(2,3];$ (ii) nonlinear statistics with vanishing third moment and finite absolute moment of order $3+δ\in(3,4].$ When applied to specific examples, these rates are of the optimal order $O(n^{-\fracδ{2}})$ and $O(n^{-\frac{1+δ}{2}}).$ Our proof are based on the covariance identify formula and simple observations about the solution of Stein's equatio…
We derive explicit Berry-Esseen bounds in the total variation distance for the Breuer-Major central limit theorem, in the case of a subordinating function $φ$ satisfying minimal regularity assumptions. Our approach is based on the combination of the Malliavin-Stein approach for normal approximations with Gebelein's inequality, bounding the covariance of functionals of Gaussian fields in terms of maximal correlation coefficients.
Let $M_n$ be a random element of the unitary, special orthogonal, or unitary symplectic groups, distributed according to Haar measure. By a classical result of Diaconis and Shahshahani, for large matrix size $n$, the vector $ (\on{Tr}(M_n), \on{Tr}(M_n^2),..., \on{Tr}(M_n^d))$ tends to a vector of independent (real or complex) Gaussian random variables. Recently, Jason Fulman has demonstrated that for a single power $j$ (which may grow with $n$), a speed of convergence result may be obtained via Stein's method of exchangeable pairs. In this note, we extend Fulman's result to the multivariate c…
We study the central limit theorem for sums of independent tensor powers, $\frac{1}{\sqrt{d}}\sum\limits_{i=1}^d X_i^{\otimes p}$. We focus on the high-dimensional regime where $X_i \in \mathbb{R}^n$ and $n$ may scale with $d$. Our main result is a proposed threshold for convergence. Specifically, we show that, under some regularity assumption, if $n^{2p-1}\gg d$, then the normalized sum converges to a Gaussian. The results apply, among others, to symmetric uniform log-concave measures and to product measures. This generalizes several results found in the literature. Our main technique is a no…
We compute explicit bounds in the Gaussian approximation of functionals of infinite Rademacher sequences. Our tools involve Stein's method, as well as the use of appropriate discrete Malliavin operators. Although our approach does not require the classical use of exchangeable pairs, we employ a chaos expansion in order to construct an explicit exchangeable pair vector for any random variable which depends on a finite set of Rademacher variables. Among several examples, which include random variables which depend on infinitely many Rademacher variables, we provide three main applications: (i) t…
Let $\{G_n: n\geq 1\}$ be a sequence of simple graphs. Suppose $G_n$ has $m_n$ edges and each vertex of $G_n$ is colored independently and uniformly at random with $c_n$ colors. Recently, Bhattacharya, Diaconis and Mukherjee (2013) proved universal limit theorems for the number of monochromatic edges in $G_n$. Their proof was by the method of moments, and therefore was not able to produce rates of convergence. By a non-trivial application of Stein's method, we prove that there exists a universal error bound for their central limit theorem. The error bound depends only on $m_n$ and $c_n$, regar…
Let $B$ be a bifractional Brownian motion with parameters $H\in (0, 1)$ and $K\in(0,1]$. For any $n\geq1$, set $Z_n =\sum_{i=0}^{n-1}\big[n^{2HK}(B_{(i+1)/n}-B_{i/n})^2-\E((B_{i+1}-B_{i})^2)\big]$. We use the Malliavin calculus and the so-called Stein's method on Wiener chaos introduced by Nourdin and Peccati \cite{NP09} to derive, in the case when $0<HK\leq3/4$, Berry-Esséen-type bounds for the Kolmogorov distance between the law of the correct renormalization $V_n$ of $Z_n$ and the standard normal law. Finally, we study almost sure central limit theorems for the sequence $V_n$.
One of the remarkable applications of the cavity method is to prove the Thouless-Anderson-Palmer (TAP) system of equations in the high temperature regime of the Sherrington-Kirkpatrick (SK) model. This naturally leads us to the important study of the limit laws for cavity and local fields. The first quantitative results for both fields based on Stein's method were studied by Chatterjee. Although Stein's method provides us an efficient approach for obtaining the limiting distributions, the nature of this method restricts the derivation of optimal and general results. In this paper, our study ba…
We establish existence of Stein kernels for probability measures on $\mathbb{R}^d$ satisfying a Poincaré inequality, and obtain bounds on the Stein discrepancy of such measures. Applications to quantitative central limit theorems are discussed, including a new CLT in Wasserstein distance $W_2$ with optimal rate and dependence on the dimension. As a byproduct, we obtain a stability version of an estimate of the Poincaré constant of probability measures under a second moment constraint. The results extend more generally to the setting of converse weighted Poincaré inequalities. The proof is base…
We combine Malliavin calculus with Stein's method, in order to derive explicit bounds in the Gaussian and Gamma approximations of random variables in a fixed Wiener chaos of a general Gaussian process. We also prove results concerning random variables admitting a possibly infinite Wiener chaotic decomposition. Our approach generalizes, refines and unifies the central and non-central limit theorems for multiple Wiener-Itô integrals recently proved (in several papers, from 2005 to 2007) by Nourdin, Nualart, Ortiz-Latorre, Peccati and Tudor. We apply our techniques to prove Berry-Esséen bounds in…
Stein kernels are a way of comparing probability distributions, defined via integration by parts formulas. We provide two constructions of Stein kernels in free probability. One is given by an explicit formula, and the other via free Poincaré inequalities. In particular, we show that unlike in the classical setting, free Stein kernels always exist. As corollaries, we derive new bounds on the rate of convergence in the free CLT, and a strengthening of a characterization of the semicircular law due to Biane.
Consider throwing $n$ balls at random into $m$ urns, each ball landing in urn $i$ with probability $p_i$. Let $S$ be the resulting number of singletons, i.e., urns containing just one ball. We give an error bound for the Kolmogorov distance from $S$ to the normal, and estimates on its variance. These show that if $n$, $m$ and $(p_i, 1 \leq i \leq m)$ vary in such a way that $\sup_i p_i = O(n^{-1})$, then $S$ satisfies a CLT if and only if $n^2 \sum_i p_i^2$ tends to infinity, and demonstrate an optimal rate of convergence in the CLT in this case. In the uniform case $(p_i \equiv m^{-1}) with $…
We combine the notion of free Stein kernel and the free Malliavin calculus to provide quantitative bounds under the free (quadratic) Wasserstein distance in the multivariate semicircular approximations for self-adjoint vector-valued multiple Wigner integrals. On the way, we deduce an HSI inequality for a modified non-microstates free entropy with respect to the potential associated with these semicircular families in the case of non-degeneracy of the covariance matrix. The strategy of the proofs is based on functional inequalities involving the free Stein discrepancy. We obtain a bound which d…
We introduce a new version of Stein's method that reduces a large class of normal approximation problems to variance bounding exercises, thus making a connection between central limit theorems and concentration of measure. Unlike Skorokhod embeddings, the object whose variance must be bounded has an explicit formula that makes it possible to carry out the program more easily. As an application, we derive a general CLT for functions that are obtained as combinations of many local contributions, where the definition of "local" itself depends on the data. Several examples are given, including the…
We consider sequences of random variables of the type $S_n= n^{-1/2} \sum_{k=1}^n \{f(X_k)-\E[f(X_k)]\}$, $n\geq 1$, where $X=(X_k)_{k\in \Z}$ is a $d$-dimensional Gaussian process and $f: \R^d \rightarrow \R$ is a measurable function. It is known that, under certain conditions on $f$ and the covariance function $r$ of $X$, $S_n$ converges in distribution to a normal variable $S$. In the present paper we derive several explicit upper bounds for quantities of the type $|\E[h(S_n)] -\E[h(S)]|$, where $h$ is a sufficiently smooth test function. Our methods are based on Malliavin calculus, on inte…
We investigate links between the so-called Stein's density approach in dimension one and some functional and concentration inequalities. We show that measures having a finite first moment and a density with connected support satisfy a weighted Poincaré inequality with the weight being the Stein kernel, that indeed exists and is unique in this case. Furthermore, we prove weighted log-Sobolev and asymmetric Brascamp-Lieb type inequalities related to Stein kernels. We also show that existence of a uniformly bounded Stein kernel is sufficient to ensure a positive Cheeger isoperimetric constant. Th…
On a probability space $(Ω, \mathcal F, \mathbb P)$ we consider two independent sequences $(a_k)_{k \geq 1}$ and $(b_k)_{k \geq 1}$ of i.i.d. random variables that are centered with unit variance and which admit a moment strictly higher than two. We define the associated random trigonometric polynomial \[ f_n(t) :=\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} \sum_{k=1}^n a_k \cos(kt)+b_k \sin(kt), \quad t \in \mathbb R. \] In their seminal work, for Rademacher coefficients, Salem and Zygmund showed that $\mathbb P$ almost surely: \[ \forall t\in\mathbb R,\quad \frac{1}{2π}\int_{0}^{2π} \exp\left(i t f_n(x)\right) dx \x…
