Inequalities for the distribution of a sum of functions of independent random variables

Let where ₁,..., n are independent random variables and the are functions (e.g., taking the values 0 and 1). For cases when almost all the summands forming are equal to 0 with a probability close to 1, estimates from above and below are obtained for the quantity P{=0}, as well as upper estimates for the distance in variation between the distribution , and the distribution of the approximating sum of independent random variables.Translated from Matematicheskie Zametki, Vol. 22, No. 5, pp. 745–758, November, 1977.The author is grateful to V. G. Mikhailov for numerous discussions of the results of this paper and for his help in carrying out the tedious auxiliary calculations.