Kolmogorov's inequality

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kolmogorov's inequality is a mathematical inequality appearing in probability theory, named after the Russian mathematician Andrey Kolmogorov. The statement of the inequality is as follows

Let X_1,\dots, X_n be independent random variables in a probability space, such that \operatorname{E} X_k=0 and \operatorname{Var} \, X_k <\infty for k=1,\dots, n. Then, for each λ > 0,

P\left(\max_{1\leq k\leq n} | S_k|\geq\lambda\right)\leq \frac{1}{\lambda^2} \operatorname{Var}\,S_n = \frac{1}{\lambda^2}\sum_{k=1}^n \operatorname{Var}\,X_k,

where S_k = X_1 +\cdots + X_k.

[edit] See also


This article incorporates material from Kolmogorov's inequality on PlanetMath, which is licensed under the GFDL.

In other languages