This theorem describes the behaviour of a sum of random variables as a random variable:
If for
,
where each
is a random sample from a distribution
with mean and variance
, then
where
( ``The mean of the sum is the sum of the means'')
and
( ``The variance of the sum is the sum of the variances''),
regardless of the shape of
[as long as
and
are finite and well-defined].
Note especially that is always
a normal (Gaussian) distribution!
I have used an unconventional notation here
( instead of
for the variance)
because K&K use
for the entropy
and I don't want to create more notational ambiguity
than necessary.