Revised December 5, 2019 Information Theoretic Security
Lecture 1
Matthieu Bloch
1 Notation and basic definitions We start by briefly introducing the notion used throughout this book. Tie set of real numbers and integers are denoted by R and N, respectively. For a < b ∈ R, the open (resp. closed) interval between a and b is denoted by ]a; b[ (resp. [a; b]). For n < m ∈ N, we set n, m ≜ {i ∈ N : n ⩽
i ⩽ m}. Scalar real-valued random variables are denoted by uppercase letters, e.g., X with realizations denoted in lowercase, e.g, x. Vector real-valued random variables and realizations are shown in bold, e.g., X and x. Sets are denoted by calligraphic letters, e.g., X. Given a vector x ∈ X n, the components of x are denoted {xi}n
i=1. For 1 ⩽ i ⩽ j ⩽ n, we define xi:j ≜ {xk : i ⩽ k ⩽ j}.
Matrices are also denoted by capital bold letters, e.g., A ∈ Rn×m and we make sure no confusion arises with random vectors. Unless otherwise specified, sets are assumed to be finite, e.g., |X| < ∞, and random variables are assumed to be discrete. Tie probability simplex over X is denoted ∆(X) and we always denote the Probability Mass Function (PMF) of X by pX. Tie support of a PMF p ∈ ∆(X) is supp (p) ≜ {x ∈ X : p(x) > 0}. If X is a continuous random variable, we will abuse notation and also denote its Probability Density Function (PDF) by pX; whether we manipulate PDFs or PMFs will always be clear from context and no confusion should arise. Given two jointly distributed random variables X ∈ X and Y ∈ Y, their joint distribution is denoted by pXY and the conditional distribution of Y given X is denoted by pY |X. It is sometimes convenient to define a conditional distribution without specific random variables, in which case we use the notion of Markov kernel as defined below. Definition 1.1. W is a Markov kernel from X to Y, if for all x, y ∈ X × Y W(y|x) ⩾ 0 and for all x ∈ X
y∈Y W(y|x) = 1. For any p ∈ ∆(X), we define W · p ∈ ∆(X × Y) and W ◦ p ∈ ∆(Y) as
(W · p) (x, y) ≜ W(y|x)p(x) and (W ◦ p) (y) ≜
- x∈X
(W · p)(x, y). (1) Tie notion of Markov kernel is mainly used to simplify notation and does not bear any profound
- meaning. Two jointly distributed random variables X and Y are called independent if pXY =
pXpY . Tie expected value, or average, or a random variable X is defined as E(X) ≜
- x∈X
xpX(x). Tie m-th centered moment of X is defined as E((X − EX(X))m), and in particular the variance
- f X denoted Var(X) is the second centered moment.