On the asymptotic of likelihood ratios for self-normalized large deviations

Abstract

Motivated by multiple statistical hypothesis testing, we obtain the limit of likelihood ratio of large deviations for self-normalized random variables, specifically, the ratio of $P(\sqrt{n}(\bar X +d/n) \ge x_n V)$ to $P(\sqrt{n}\bar X \ge x_n V)$, as $n\toi$, where $\bar X$ and $V$ are the sample mean and standard deviation of iid $X_1, ..., X_n$, respectively, $d>0$ is a constant and $x_n \toi$. We show that the limit can have a simple form $e^{d/z_0}$, where $z_0$ is the unique maximizer of $z f(x)$ with $f$ the density of $X_i$. The result is applied to derive the minimum sample size per test in order to control the error rate of multiple testing at a target level, when real signals are different from noise signals only by a small shift.