Ask $\bar{X}$ distribution in normal distribution

probabilityprobability theorystatistics

Let $X_1,…,X_n$ be a random sample from a $n(\theta,\sigma^2)$ population, $\sigma^2$ known. Then we know $(\bar{X}-\theta)/(\sigma/\sqrt{n}) \sim n(0,1)$.

Does this property depends on $\sigma^2$ known or unknown? Is there any difference between $\sigma^2$ known or unknown?

The background is normal power function. (George Casella example 8.3.3). An LRT of $H_0:\theta \leq \theta_0$ versus $H_1:\theta > \theta_0$ is a test that rejects $H_0$ if $(\bar{X}-\theta_0)/(\sigma/\sqrt{n}) >c$. Then we can show the power function of this test is $\beta(\theta)=P(Z>c+(\theta_0-\theta)/(\sigma/\sqrt{n}))$, where Z is a standard normal random variable, since $(\bar{X}-\theta)/(\sigma/\sqrt{n}) \sim n(0,1)$.

Then I ask my question. Since this question said $\sigma^2$ known. I am wondering whether Z is standard normal depends on $\sigma^2$ known or not.

Best Answer

The result does not depend on wheter $\sigma$ is known or not, but in practice, how can we even hope to calculate $\frac{\bar X-\theta}{\sigma / \sqrt{n}}$, when $\sigma$ is unknown to us? A proper statistic should only rely on data and not on unknown parameters.

When $\sigma$ is unknown, the usual approach would be to replace $\sigma$ by the estimated standard deviation $S= \sqrt{\frac{1}{n-1}\sum_{k=1}^n (X_k - \bar{X})^2}$ and create a new statistic $T=\frac{\bar X-\theta}{S/\sqrt{n}}$, however this new statistic does not have a normal distribution. It has a t-distribution with $n-1$ degrees of freedom.