Concept of order statistics

order-statisticsprobability theoryrandom variables

I am having trouble understanding the concept of order statistics. If I have $X_1, \ldots, X_n$ random variables, I can define the order statistics (which are alse random variables) $X_{(1)}, \ldots, X_{(n)}$ which are a sorting of $X_1, \ldots, X_n$.
I can't sort random variables; instead I have to sort their realizations. So , when I sort these realizations, the random variables are no longer functions since they are a value now, (a realization), so I don't understand why $X_{(1)}, \ldots, X_{(n)}$ are random variables, since they are a sorting of realizations. Can someone help me?

Best Answer

As I see, you have a problem with just the definition.

Note that $X_1,...,X_n:\Omega \to \mathbb R$ are random variables (that is measurable functions).

For given $\omega \in \Omega$, you have certain values $X_1(\omega),...,X_n(\omega)$.

Those certain values can be sorted (maybe sorting is not unique). In other words, there exists permutation $\pi_{\omega}:\{1,...,n\} \to \{1,...,n\}$ such that:

$$ X_{\pi_{\omega}(1)}(\omega) \le ... \le X_{\pi_{\omega}(n)}(\omega)$$

Now, the point is, you define $X_{(k)}:\Omega \to \mathbb R$ with the formula: $$ X_{(k)}(\omega) = X_{\pi_{\omega}(k)}(\omega)$$

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