More bounds for moments of some rank statistics

Abstract

Let X₁,…,X₇ be i.i.d. random variables with a common continuous distribution F, Two parameters, μ(F) = P(X₁ < X₅ and X₁+X₄ < X₂+X₃) and λ(F) = P(X₁+X₄ < X₂+X₃ and X₁+X₇ < X₅+X₆), which appear in the moments of some rank statistics have been studied by several authors. It is shown that the existing lower bound, 3/10 ≤ μ(F) can be improved to 3/10 < μ(F) and that no further improvement is possible. It is also shown that the existing upper bounds μ(F) ≤ (2^1/2+6)/24 ≈ 0.30893 and λ(F) ≤ 7/24 ≈ 0.29167 can be improved to [14+(2/3)^1/2]/48 ≈ 0.30868 and {7 − [1 − (2/3)^1/2]²/4}/24 ≈ 0.29132.

Keywords:

• order statistics
• nonparametric