104
20

Bounding the Maximum of Dependent Random Variables

Abstract

Let MnM_n be the maximum of nn zero-mean gaussian variables X1,..,XnX_1,..,X_n with covariance matrix of minimum eigenvalue λ\lambda and maximum eigenvalue Λ\Lambda. Then, for n70n \ge 70, \Pr\{M_n \ge \lambda \left (2 \log n - 2.5 - \log(2 \log n - 2.5) \right )^\frac{1}{2} -.68\Lambda\} \ge \frac{1}{2}. Bounds are also given for tail probabilities other than 12\frac{1}{2}. Upper bounds are given for tail probabilities of the maximum of dependent identically distributed variables. As an application, the maximum of purely non-deterministic stationary Gaussian processes is shown to have the same first order asymptotic behaviour as the maximum of independent gaussian processes.

View on arXiv
Comments on this paper