Reverse Information Projections and Optimal E-statistics

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Lardy, Tyron, Grünwald, Peter, Harremoës, Peter
Format: Preprint
Published: 2023
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author Lardy, Tyron
Grünwald, Peter
Harremoës, Peter
author_facet Lardy, Tyron
Grünwald, Peter
Harremoës, Peter
contents Information projections have found important applications in probability theory, statistics, and related areas. In the field of hypothesis testing in particular, the reverse information projection (RIPr) has recently been shown to lead to growth-rate optimal (GRO) e-statistics for testing simple alternatives against composite null hypotheses. However, the RIPr as well as the GRO criterion are undefined whenever the infimum information divergence between the null and alternative is infinite. We show that in such scenarios, under some assumptions, there still exists a measure in the null that is closest to the alternative in a specific sense. Whenever the information divergence is finite, this measure coincides with the usual RIPr. It therefore gives a natural extension of the RIPr to certain cases where the latter was previously not defined. This extended notion of the RIPr is shown to lead to optimal e-statistics in a sense that is a novel, but natural, extension of the GRO criterion. We also give conditions under which the (extension of the) RIPr is a strict sub-probability measure, as well as conditions under which an approximation of the RIPr leads to approximate e-statistics. For this case we provide tight relations between the corresponding approximation rates.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2306_16646
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Reverse Information Projections and Optimal E-statistics
Lardy, Tyron
Grünwald, Peter
Harremoës, Peter
Information Theory
Statistics Theory
62B10 (primary), 94A17 (secondary)
Information projections have found important applications in probability theory, statistics, and related areas. In the field of hypothesis testing in particular, the reverse information projection (RIPr) has recently been shown to lead to growth-rate optimal (GRO) e-statistics for testing simple alternatives against composite null hypotheses. However, the RIPr as well as the GRO criterion are undefined whenever the infimum information divergence between the null and alternative is infinite. We show that in such scenarios, under some assumptions, there still exists a measure in the null that is closest to the alternative in a specific sense. Whenever the information divergence is finite, this measure coincides with the usual RIPr. It therefore gives a natural extension of the RIPr to certain cases where the latter was previously not defined. This extended notion of the RIPr is shown to lead to optimal e-statistics in a sense that is a novel, but natural, extension of the GRO criterion. We also give conditions under which the (extension of the) RIPr is a strict sub-probability measure, as well as conditions under which an approximation of the RIPr leads to approximate e-statistics. For this case we provide tight relations between the corresponding approximation rates.
title Reverse Information Projections and Optimal E-statistics
topic Information Theory
Statistics Theory
62B10 (primary), 94A17 (secondary)
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.16646