Concentration inequalities for dependent random variables via the martingale method

Abstract

The martingale method is used to establish concentration inequalities for a class of dependent random sequences on a countable state space, with the constants in the inequalities expressed in terms of certain mixing coefficients. Along the way, bounds are obtained on martingale differences associated with the random sequences, which may be of independent interest. As applications of the main result, concentration inequalities are also derived for inhomoge-neous Markov chains and hidden Markov chains, and an extremal property associated with their martingale difference bounds is established. This work complements and generalizes certain concentration inequalities obtained by Marton and Samson, while also providing different proofs of some known results. © Institute of Mathematical Statistics, 2008.