TV homogenization inequalities

Read full text
Authors: Aryeh Kontorovich
Cited by: 0

Abstract

We study the total variation distance under two information-erasing maps on inhomogeneous Bernoulli product measures: summation and homogenization. While summation is a Markov kernel and hence satisfies the usual data processing inequality, homogenization -- which maps each Bernoulli parameter to the cumulative mean -- is not. Nevertheless, we prove that the homogenization map also reduces the TV distance, up to a universal constant. The argument is based on an explicit two-sided control of the TV distance between Poisson binomials, obtained via a parameter interpolation and a second-moment extraction lemma.

Fields of Study & Subjects

Advanced Mathematical Modeling in Engineering Topological and Geometric Data Analysis Markov Chains and Monte Carlo Methods

Publication details

Journal / source
arXiv (Cornell University)
Publication date
7 January 2026
Document type
Preprint