TV homogenization inequalities
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