On concentration of self-bounding functions

Abstract

We prove some new concentration inequalities for self-bounding functions using the entropy method. As an application, we recover Talagrand’s convex distance inequality. The new Bernstein-like inequalities for self-bounding functions are derived thanks to a careful analysis of the so-called Herbst argument. The latter involves comparison results between solutions of differential inequalities that may be interesting in their own right. © 2009 Applied Probability Trust.