FKG Inequality - A Special Case: The Harris Inequality

A Special Case: The Harris Inequality

If the lattice is totally ordered, then the lattice condition is satisfied trivially for any measure μ. For this case, the FKG inequality is Chebyshev's sum inequality: if the two increasing functions take on values and, then (we may assume that the measure μ is uniform)

More generally, for any probability measure μ on and increasing functions ƒ and g,

which follows immediately from

The lattice condition is trivially satisfied also when the lattice is the product of totally ordered lattices, and is a product measure. Often all the factors (both the lattices and the measures) are identical, i.e., μ is the probability distribution of i.i.d. random variables.

The FKG inequality for the case of a product measure is known also as the Harris inequality after Harris (Harris 1960), who found and used it in his study of percolation in the plane. A proof of the Harris inequality that uses the above double integral trick on can be found, e.g., in Section 2.2 of Grimmett (1999).

Read more about this topic:  FKG Inequality

Famous quotes containing the words special, harris and/or inequality:

    I think those Southern writers [William Faulkner, Carson McCullers] have analyzed very carefully the buildup in the South of a special consciousness brought about by the self- condemnation resulting from slavery, the humiliation following the War Between the States and the hope, sometimes expressed timidly, for redemption.
    Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)

    The difference between faith and superstition is that the first uses reason to go as far as it can, and then makes the jump; the second shuns reason entirely—which is why superstition is not the ally, but the enemy, of true religion.
    —Sydney J. Harris (1917–1986)

    However energetically society in general may strive to make all the citizens equal and alike, the personal pride of each individual will always make him try to escape from the common level, and he will form some inequality somewhere to his own profit.
    Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–1859)