IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jmvana/v94y2005i1p70-108.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

On the minimization of multinomial tails and the Gupta-Nagel conjecture

Author

Listed:
  • Gastaldi, Tommaso

Abstract

This paper is primarily concerned with the open problem of minimizing the lower tail of the multinomial distribution. During the study of that specific problem, we have developed an approach which reveals itself useful for solving a general class of problems involving multinomial probabilities. Concerning the main problem, we provide a self-contained proof that the minimum of the multinomial lower tail is reached, as conjectured by Gupta and Nagel (Sankhya Ser. B 29 (1967) 1) (within the framework of subset-selection problems) at the equal probability configuration, i.e., when the cell probabilities are equal to one another. We also point out some novel inequalities and general properties involving multinomial probabilities and multinomial coefficients.

Suggested Citation

  • Gastaldi, Tommaso, 2005. "On the minimization of multinomial tails and the Gupta-Nagel conjecture," Journal of Multivariate Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 94(1), pages 70-108, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jmvana:v:94:y:2005:i:1:p:70-108
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047-259X(04)00218-0
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jmvana:v:94:y:2005:i:1:p:70-108. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/622892/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.