On monotonicity of Ramanujan function for binomial random variables

Abstract

For a binomial random variable $\xi$ with parameters $n$ and $b/n$, it is well known that the median equals $b$ when $b$ is an integer. In 1968, Jogdeo and Samuels studied the behaviour of the relative difference between ${\sf P}(\xi=b)$ and $1/2-{\sf P}(\xi<b)$. They proved its monotonicity in $n$ and posed a question about its monotonicity in $b$. This question is motivated by the solved problem proposed by Ramanujan in 1911 on the monotonicity of the same quantity but for a Poisson random variable with an integer parameter $b$. In the paper, we answer this question and introduce a simple way to analyse the monotonicity of similar functions.