Some approximation methods for the distribution of random sums

This paper deals with approximation methods for the distribution of random sums, a subject being of high interest especially in actuarial mathematics (distribution of the total claim during a fixed time interval). Above all the authors intended to deliver rigid proofs for some propositions (such as Esscher and Edgeworth approximation) which are established in relevant articles frequently only in heuristic manner.     

An invariance principle for stationary random fields under Hannan’s condition

We establish an invariance principle for a general class of stationary random fields indexed by Z^d${\mathbb{Z}}^d$, under Hannan’s condition generalized to Z^d${\mathbb{Z}}^d$. To do so we first establish a uniform integrability result for stationary orthomartingales, and second we establish a coboundary decomposition for certain stationary random fields. At last, we obtain an invariance principle by developing an orthomartingale approximation. Our invariance principle improves known results in the literature, and particularly we require only finite second moment.     

Rates of convergence in the central limit theorem for linear statistics of martingale differences

In this paper, we give rates of convergence for minimal distances between linear statistics of martingale differences and the limiting Gaussian distribution. In particular the results apply to the partial sums of (possibly long range dependent) linear processes, and to the least squares estimator in some parametric regression models.     

Fourier transform methods for pathwise covariance estimation in the presence of jumps

We provide a new non-parametric Fourier procedure to estimate the trajectory of the instantaneous covariance process (from discrete observations of a multidimensional price process) in the presence of jumps extending the seminal work of Malliavin and Mancino (2002, 2009). Our approach relies on a modification of (classical) jump-robust estimators of integrated realized covariance to estimate the Fourier coefficients of the covariance trajectory. Using Fourier–Féjer inversion we reconstruct the path of the instantaneous covariance. We prove consistency and a central limit theorem (CLT) and in particular that the asymptotic estimator variance is smaller by a factor 2/3 in comparison to classical local estimators.     

A Central Limit Theorem for linear random fields

A Central Limit Theorem is proved for linear random fields when sums are taken over union of finitely many disjoint rectangles. The approach does not rely upon the use of Beveridge-Nelson decomposition and the conditions needed are similar in nature to those given by Ibragimov for linear processes. When specializing this result to the case when sums are being taken over rectangles, a complete analogue of the Ibragimov result is obtained for random fields with a lot of uniformity.     

On Beveridge-Nelson decomposition and limit theorems for linear random fields

We consider linear random fields and show how an analogue of the Beveridge-Nelson decomposition can be applied to prove limit theorems for sums of such fields.     

On the mode-change problem for random measures

The classical change-point problem in modern terms, i.e., the mode-change problem, is stated for sufficiently general set-indexed random processes, namely for random measures. A method is shown for solving this problem both in the general form and for the intensity of compound Poisson random measures. The results obtained are novel for the change-point problem, too.     

Strong approximation and a central limit theorem for St. Petersburg sums

The St. Petersburg paradox (Bernoulli, 1738) concerns the fair entry fee in a game where the winnings are distributed as $P(X=2^k)=2^{?k},k=1,2,\dots$. The tails of $X$ are not regularly varying and the sequence $S_n$ of accumulated gains has, suitably centered and normalized, a class of semistable laws as subsequential limit distributions (Martin-Löf, 1985; Csörg? and Dodunekova, 1991). This has led to a clarification of the paradox and an interesting and unusual asymptotic theory in past decades. In this paper we prove that $S_n$ can be approximated by a semistable Lévy process $\{L\left(n\right),n\ge 1\}$ with a.s. error $O\left(\sqrt{n}{(logn)}^{1+\epsilon }\right)$ and, surprisingly, the error term is asymptotically normal, exhibiting an unexpected central limit theorem in St. Petersburg theory.     

Poisson approximation for the number of large digits of inhomogeneousf-expansions

We determine the exact rate of Poisson approximation and give a second-order Poisson-Charlier expansion for the number of excedances of a given levelL _n among the firstn digits of inhomogeneousf-expansions of real numbers in the unit interval. The application of this general result to homogeneousf-expansions and, in particular, to regular continued fraction expansions provides not only a generalization but also a strengthening of a classical Poisson limit theorem due to W. Doeblin.     

Asymptotic normal distribution of multidimensional statistics of dependent random variables

A central limit theorem for multidimensional processes in the sense of [9], [10] is proved. In particular the asymptotic normal distribution of a sum of dependent random functions of m variables defined on the positive part of the integral lattice is established by the method of moments. The results obtained can be used, for example, in proving the asymptotic normality of different statistics of n₀-dependent random variables as well as to determine the asymptotic behaviour of the resultant of reflected waves of telluric type.     

On the Gaussian approximation of vector-valued multiple integrals

By combining the findings of two recent, seminal papers by Nualart, Peccati and Tudor, we get that the convergence in law of any sequence of vector-valued multiple integrals F_n towards a centered Gaussian random vector N, with given covariance matrix C, is reduced to just the convergence of: (i) the fourth cumulant of each component of F_n to zero; (ii) the covariance matrix of F_n to C. The aim of this paper is to understand more deeply this somewhat surprising phenomenon. To reach this goal, we offer two results of a different nature. The first one is an explicit bound for d(F,N) in terms of the fourth cumulants of the components of F, when F is a R^d-valued random vector whose components are multiple integrals of possibly different orders, N is the Gaussian counterpart of F (that is, a Gaussian centered vector sharing the same covariance with F) and d stands for the Wasserstein distance. The second one is a new expression for the cumulants of F as above, from which it is easy to derive yet another proof of the previously quoted result by Nualart, Peccati and Tudor.     

On the centre of mass of a random walk

For a random walk $S_n$ on ${\mathbb{R}}^d$ we study the asymptotic behaviour of the associated centre of mass process $G_n=n^{?1}{\sum }_{i=1}^n{S}_i$. For lattice distributions we give conditions for a local limit theorem to hold. We prove that if the increments of the walk have zero mean and finite second moment, $G_n$ is recurrent if $d=1$ and transient if $d\ge 2$. In the transient case we show that $G_n$ has a diffusive rate of escape. These results extend work of Grill, who considered simple symmetric random walk. We also give a class of random walks with symmetric heavy-tailed increments for which $G_n$ is transient in $d=1$.     

Neighborhood radius estimation for variable-neighborhood random fields

We consider random fields defined by finite-region conditional probabilities depending on a neighborhood of the region which changes with the boundary conditions. To predict the symbols within any finite region, it is necessary to inspect a random number of neighborhood symbols which might change according to the value of them. In analogy with the one-dimensional setting we call these neighborhood symbols the context associated to the region at hand. This framework is a natural extension, to d-dimensional fields, of the notion of variable length Markov chains introduced by Rissanen [24] in his classical paper. We define an algorithm to estimate the radius of the smallest ball containing the context based on a realization of the field. We prove the consistency of this estimator. Our proofs are constructive and yield explicit upper bounds for the probability of wrong estimation of the radius of the context.     

A mixed-step algorithm for the approximation of the stationary regime of a diffusion

In some recent papers, some procedures based on some weighted empirical measures related to decreasing-step Euler schemes have been investigated to approximate the stationary regime of a diffusion (possibly with jumps) for a class of functionals of the process. This method is efficient but needs the computation of the function at each step. To reduce the complexity of the procedure (especially for functionals), we propose in this paper to study a new scheme, called the mixed-step scheme, where we only keep some regularly time-spaced values of the Euler scheme. Our main result is that, when the coefficients of the diffusion are smooth enough, this alternative does not change the order of the rate of convergence of the procedure. We also investigate a Richardson–Romberg method to speed up the convergence and show that the variance of the original algorithm can be preserved under a uniqueness assumption for the invariant distribution of the “duplicated” diffusion, condition which is extensively discussed in the paper. Finally, we conclude by giving sufficient “asymptotic confluence” conditions for the existence of a smooth solution to a discrete version of the associated Poisson equation, condition which is required to ensure the rate of convergence results.     

A note on exact convergence rate in the local limit theorem for a lattice branching random walk

Consider a branching random walk, where the underlying branching mechanism is governed by a Galton-Watson process and the moving law of particles by a discrete random variable on the integer lattice Z. Denote by Z_n(z) the number of particles in the n-th generation in the model for each z ∈ Z. We derive the exact convergence rate in the local limit theorem for Z_n(z) assuming a condition like "EN(log N)~(1+λ) ∞" for the offspring distribution and a finite moment condition on the motion law. This complements the known results for the strongly non-lattice branching random walk on the real line and for the simple symmetric branching random walk on the integer lattice.     

Central limit theorem for functionals of a generalized self-similar Gaussian process

We consider a class of self-similar, continuous Gaussian processes that do not necessarily have stationary increments. We prove a version of the Breuer–Major theorem for this class, that is, subject to conditions on the covariance function, a generic functional of the process increments converges in law to a Gaussian random variable. The proof is based on the Fourth Moment Theorem. We give examples of five non-stationary processes that satisfy these conditions.     

On normal approximation of discounted and strongly mixing random variables

We estimate the difference for bounded functions h: ℝ → ℝ satisfying the Lipschitz condition, where Z _v = B _v ⁻¹ ∑ _i=0 ^∞ v ⁱ X _i and with discount factor ν such that 0 < ν < 1. Here {X _n , n ≥ 0} is a sequence of strongly mixing random variables with , and N is a standard normal random variable. In a particular case, the obtained upper bounds are of order O((1 − ν)^1/2). Published in Lietuvos Matematikos Rinkinys, Vol. 47, No. 3, pp. 399–409, July–September, 2007. The research was partially supported by the Lithuanian State Science and Studies Foundation, grant No. T-15/07.     

Limit theory for the empirical extremogram of random fields

Regularly varying stochastic processes are able to model extremal dependence between process values at locations in random fields. We investigate the empirical extremogram as an estimator of dependence in the extremes. We provide conditions to ensure asymptotic normality of the empirical extremogram centred by a pre-asymptotic version. The proof relies on a CLT for exceedance variables. For max-stable processes with Fréchet margins we provide conditions such that the empirical extremogram centred by its true version is asymptotically normal. The results of this paper apply to a variety of spatial and space–time processes, and to time series models. We apply our results to max-moving average processes and Brown–Resnick processes.     

On the rate of normal approximation inD[0, 1]

The paper gives estimates of the rate of convergence in the central limit theorems for stochastically continuous cadlag processes proved recently by Bézandry and Fernique (Ann. Inst H. Poincare,28) and Bloznelis and Paulauskas (to appear inStoch. Proc. Appl.). Research supported by the SFB 343 at Bielefeld, by a Grant from the Lithuanian Government, and by V.P. Grant 94. Vilnius University, Naugarduko 24; Institute of Mathematics and Informatics, Akademijos 4, 2600 Vilnius, Lithuania. Published in Lietuvos Matematikos Rinkinys, Vol. 37, No. 3, pp. 280–294, July–September, 1997.