Random Variables

Random Variable

Given an experiment with sample space $S$, a random variable (r.v.) is function from the sample space $S$ to the real numbers $\mathbb{R}$. It is common, but not required, to denote random variables by capital letters.

Thus, a random variable $X$ assigns a number value $X(s)$ to each possible outcome $s$ of the experiment. The mapping itself is deterministic.

For example, consider an experiment where we toss a fair coin twice. The sample space consists of four possible outcomes $S=\left\{HH,HT,TH,TT\right\}$. Then we can define $X$ be the number of Heads:

$$X(HH)=2,X(HT)=X(TH)=1,X(TT)=0$$

Discrete Random Variable

A random variable $X$ is said to be discrete if there is a finite list of values $a_1,\dots ,a_n$ or an infinite list of values $a_1,a_2,\dots$ such that $P(X=a_j\text{ for some }j)>0$. If $X$ is a discrete r.v., then the finite or countable infinite set of values $x$ such that $P(X=x)>0$ is called the support of $X$

In contrast, a continuous r.v. can take on any real value in an interval (possibly even the entire real line)

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It is also possible to have an r.v. that is a hybrid of discrete and continuous, such as by flipping a coin and then generating a discrete r.v. if the coin lands Heads and generating a continuous r.v. if the coin lands on Tails.

Indicator Random Variable

The indicator random variable of an event $A$ is the r.v. which equals $1$ if $A$ occurs and $0$ otherwise. We will denote the indicator r.v. of $A$ by $I_A$ or $I(A)$. See Indicator Random Variables

Probability Mass Function

The Probability Mass Function (PMF) of a discrete r.v. $X$ is the function $p_X$ given by $p_X(x)=P(X=x)$. Note that this is positive if $x$ is in the support of $X$, and $0$ otherwise

Tip

In writing $P(X=x)$, we are using $X=x$ to denote an event, consisting of all outcomes $s$ to which $X$ assigns to the number $x$

Let $X$ be a discrete r.v. with support $x_1,x_2,\dots$, the PMF $p_X$ of $X$ must satisfy the following two criteria:

• Nonnegative: $p_X(x)>0$ if $x=x_j$ for some $j$, and $p_X(x)=0$ otherwise;
• Sums to $1$: ${\sum }_{j=1}^{\infty }{p}_X(x_j)=1$

Cumulative Distribution Function

The cumulative distribution function (CDF) of an r.v. $X$ is the function $F_X$ given by $F_X(x)=P(X\le x)$. When there is no risk of ambiguity, we sometimes drop the subscript and just write $F$ for a CDF.

Any CDF $F$ has the following properties:

1. Increasing: $F(x_1)\le F(x_2)⟺x_1\le x_2$
2. Right-continuous: wherever there is a jump, the CDF is continuous from the right. That is, for any $a$, we have

$$F(a)=\underset{x\to a^{+}}{\lim }F(x)$$

3. Convergence to $0$ and $1$ in the limits:

$$\underset{x\to -\infty }{\lim }F(x)=0\text{ and }\underset{x\to \infty }{\lim }F(x)=1$$

Tip

We often say the distribution function of a discrete r.v. is its PMF, and the distribution function of a continuous r.v. is its CDF

Functions of Random Variables

For an experiment with sample space $S$, an r.v. $X$, and a function $g:\mathbb{R}\to \mathbb{R}$. $g(X)$ is the r.v. that maps $s$ to $g(X(s))$ for all $s\in S$

Let $X$ be a discrete r.v. and $g:\mathbb{R}\to \mathbb{R}$. Then the PMF of $g(X)$ is

$$P(g(X)=y)=\sum _{x:g(x)=y}P(X=x)$$

as for the continuous case:

$$P(g(X)=y)={\int }_{\left\{x:g(x)=y\right\}}P(X=x)\mathrm{d}x$$

Example

For a continuous r.v. $X\sim F(x)$ where $F(x)$ is some CDF, then $F(X)\sim U(0,1)$, and $U(\cdot ,\cdot )$ represents the uniform distribution We can prove this by converting the CDF of $F(X)$ to the CDF of $X$, that is, $P(F(X)\le y)=P(X\le F^{-1}(y))=F(F^{-1}(y))=y$ Here $F^{-1}(y)$ exists since $F(x)$ is continuous and strictly increasing (the property of CDF) See the universality of the uniform

Independence of Random Variables

Random variables $X$ and $Y$ are said to be independent if

$$P(X\le x,Y\le y)=P(X\le x)P(y\le Y)$$

for all $x,y\in \mathbb{R}$ In the discrete cases, this is equivalent to the condition

$$P(X=x,y=y)=P(X=x)P(Y=y)$$

for all $x,y$ with $x$ in the support of $X$ and $y$ in the support of $Y$

Random variables $X_1,\dots ,X_n$ are independent if

$$P(X_1\le x_1,\dots ,X_n\le x_n)=P(X\le x_1)\cdots P(X_n\le x_n)$$

for all $x_1,\dots ,x_n\in \mathbb{R}$. For infinitely many r.v.s, we say that they are independent if every finite subset of the r.v.s is independent.

Tip

Note that this criteria is different from that for independence of $n$ events. But in fact, if $X_1,\dots ,X_n$ are independent, then they are also pairwise independent, i.e., $X_i$ is independent of $X_j$ for $i\ne j$. The idea behind proving that $X_i$ and $X_j$ are independent is to let all the $x_k$ other than $x_i,x_j$ go to $\infty$ in the definition of independence, since we already know $X_k<\infty$ is true. But pairwise independence does not imply independence in general.

If $X$ and $Y$ are independent r.v.s, then any function of $X$ is independent of any function of $Y$

Independent and Identically Distributed (i.i.d.)

We often work with random variables that are independent and have the same distribution. We call such r.v. independent and identically distributed, or i.i.d. for short.

If some r.v.s. are i.i.d., they provide no information about each other and have the same PMF and CDF