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Two new proofs of the Erdös–Kac Theorem, with bound on the rate of convergence, by Stein's method for distributional approximations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2009

ADAM J. HARPER*
Affiliation:
King's College, Cambridge, CB2 1ST e-mail: A.J.Harper@dpmms.cam.ac.uk

Abstract

In this paper, we apply Stein's method for distributional approximations to prove a quantitative form of the Erdös–Kac Theorem. We obtain our best bound on the rate of convergence, on the order of log log log n (log log n)−1/2, by making an intermediate Poisson approximation; we believe that this approach is simpler and more probabilistic than others, and we also obtain an explicit numerical value for the constant implicit in the bound. Different ways of applying Stein's method to prove the Erdös–Kac Theorem are discussed, including a Normal approximation argument via exchangeable pairs, where the suitability of a Poisson approximation naturally suggests itself.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge Philosophical Society 2009

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