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Suppose $\mathcal{M}_1$ represents the space of smooth probability density functions with unit mean, whose support is contained in $[0,\infty)$ (or $\mathbb{R}_+$). Define the following functional $$\mathrm{J}(f):= \int_0^\infty x\frac{(f')^2}{f} \mathrm{d}x$$ for $f \in \mathcal{M}_1.$ I am conjecturing that $$\mathrm{J}(\rho) \leq \mathrm{J}(f) \quad \text{with} \quad \rho(x): = \int_{z\geq x} \frac{(f*f)(z)}{z} \mathrm{d}z,$$ in which $f*f$ denotes the self-convolution of $f$. I have tried some specific examples (even though not too many) and I did not find any counter-examples (analytically or numerically), so I am wondering whether there exists a proof of this conjecture/inequality, if not, a counter-example is welcome!

Edit: The motivation behind this question is as follows. Take a random variable $X$ with law $f \in \mathcal{M}_1$ unit mean and supported on $[0,\infty)$, we can think of $\mathrm{J}(f)$ as the information contained in $X$ (note that this is not the usual Fisher information, which is often denoted by $\mathrm{I}(f)$ or $\mathrm{I}(X)$). Here $\rho$ is the law of $U(X+Y)$ with $U \sim \mathrm{Uniform}([0,1])$ and $Y$ being an i.i.d. copy of $X$, in which $U$ is also independent of $X$ and $Y$. I am conjecting that the $\mathrm{J}$ information of $U(X+Y)$ is no larger than the $\mathrm{J}$ information of $X$.

Fei Cao
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    Some motivation would be nice. – TonyK Dec 30 '20 at 22:55
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    thanks, I have added some motivations! – Fei Cao Dec 30 '20 at 23:02
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    Do you have any intuition/motivation for where the definition of $J$ comes from? – angryavian Dec 30 '20 at 23:08
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    Actually not too much, I just want to 1) modify the usual Fisher information to so that the "information" of the latter is less than the "information" of the former... 2) make sure the exponential random variable with unit mean has the smallest "information". Then somehow I came up with this $\mathrm{J}$ information. – Fei Cao Dec 30 '20 at 23:13

1 Answers1

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It turns out there is a very simple counter-example (shame on me!). Simply take $f$ to be the uniform distribution $f(x) = \frac 12\mathbf{1}_{[0,2]}(x)$.

Fei Cao
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