Towards a theory of negative dependence

Abstract

The FKG theorem says that the POSITIVE LATTICE CONDITION, an easily checkable hypothesis which holds for many natural families of events, implies POSITIVE ASSOCIATION, a very useful property. Thus there is a natural and useful theory of positively dependent events. There is, as yet, no corresponding theory of negatively dependent events. There is, however, a need for such a theory. This paper, unfortunately, contains no substantial theorems. Its purpose is to present examples that motivate a need for such a theory, give plausibility arguments for the existence of such a theory, outline a few possible directions such a theory might take, and state a number of specific conjectures which pertain to the examples and to a wish list of theorems.