Worst-Case Maximal Inequalities for Heavy-tailed Random Vectors

Abstract

This paper establishes finite-sample worst-case maximal inequalities for averages of independent centered heavy-tailed random vectors. The object of interest is the expected top-$k$ Euclidean norm of the sample average, which includes the expected coordinate-wise maximum as the special case $k=1$. Under coordinatewise variance constraints and tail-envelope constraints, the worst-case value is characterized up to universal constants over the class of distributions satisfying a finite $q$:th envelope moment condition. Analogous bounds are obtained for the sub-Weibull envelope class and the marginal sub-Weibull class.