Chi-Squared Geometry for Robust Finite-Blocklength Information and Dispersion Analysis

Abstract

We develop a column-wise chi-squared geometry for discrete memoryless channels (DMCs) yielding tight, logarithm-free bounds on mutual information, channel dispersion, and finite-blocklength coding rates without evaluating logarithms of the channel matrix. The key parameter is~\(\eta\)---the worst-case relative deviation of a transition probability from its output marginal, which is small precisely when the channel is close to the fully noisy channel $t_{ij}=s_j$. We prove three main results: (1) a third-order ratio expansion showing \(I(X;Y)/\chi^2(X;Y)\to 1/2\) as \(\eta\to 0\) with an \(O(\eta)\) skewness correction; (2) a two-sided dispersion equivalence bounding \(V(X;Y)\) above and below by \(\chi^2(X;Y)\) with explicit constants \(c_{\pm}(\eta)\to 1\); and (3) a certified robust design rate \(R_{\mathrm{cert}}(n,\varepsilon)\) with total certification gap \(O(\eta)+O(\eta/\sqrt{n})+O(\log n/n)\). The certified bounds on \(I\) and \(V\) require only addition, multiplication, division, and square roots; the final rate also uses \(Q^{-1}(\varepsilon)\).