Local tail bounds for polynomials on the discrete cube

Abstract

Let $P$ be a polynomial of degree $d$ in independent Bernoulli random variables which has zero mean and unit variance. The Bonami hypercontractivity bound implies that the probability that $|P|>t$ decays exponentially in $t^{2/d}$. Confirming a conjecture of Keller and Klein, we prove a local version of this bound, providing an upper bound on the difference between the $e^{-r}$ and the $e^{-r-1}$ quantiles of $P$.

6 pp. v2: minor corrections