Despite the relevance of the binomial distribution for probability theory and applied statistical inference, its higher-order moments are poorly understood. The existing formulas are either not general enough, or not structured and simplified enough for intended applications.
This paper introduces novel formulas for binomial moments in the form of polynomials in the variance rather than in the success probability. The obtained formulas are arguably better structured, simpler and superior in their numerical properties compared to prior works. In addition, the paper presents algorithms to derive these formulas along with working implementation in Python’s symbolic algebra package.
The novel approach is a combinatorial argument coupled with clever algebraic simplifications which rely on symmetrization theory. As an interesting byproduct asymptotically sharp estimates for central binomial moments are established, improving upon previously known partial results.
It is shown that the absolute constant in the Berry–Esseen inequality for i.i.d. Bernoulli random variables is strictly less than the Esseen constant, if $1\le n\le 500000$, where n is a number of summands. This result is got both with the help of a supercomputer and an interpolation theorem, which is proved in the paper as well. In addition, applying the method developed by S. Nagaev and V. Chebotarev in 2009–2011, an upper bound is obtained for the absolute constant in the Berry–Esseen inequality in the case under consideration, which differs from the Esseen constant by no more than 0.06%. As an auxiliary result, we prove a bound in the local Moivre–Laplace theorem which has a simple and explicit form.
Despite the best possible result, obtained by J. Schulz in 2016, we propose our approach to the problem of finding the absolute constant in the Berry–Esseen inequality for two-point distributions since this approach, combining analytical methods and the use of computers, could be useful in solving other mathematical problems.