We prove a new class of inequalities, yielding bounds for the normal approximation in the Wasserstein and the Kolmogorov distance of functionals of a general Poisson process (Poisson random measure). Our approach is based on an iteration of the classical Poincaré inequality, as well as on the use of Malliavin operators, of Stein's method, and of an (integrated) Mehler's formula, providing a representation of the Ornstein-Uhlenbeck semigroup in terms of thinned Poisson processes. Our estimates only involve first and second order difference operators, and have consequently a clear geometric interpretation. In particular we will show that our results are perfectly tailored to deal with the normal approximation of geometric functionals displaying a weak form of stabilization, and with non-linear functionals of Poisson shot-noise processes. We discuss two examples of stabilizing functionals in great detail: (i) the edge length of the k-nearest neighbour graph, (ii) intrinsic volumes of k-faces of Voronoi tessellations. In all these examples we obtain rates of convergence (in the Kolmogorov and the Wasserstein distance) that one can reasonably conjecture to be

A $U$-statistic of a Poisson point process is defined as the sum $\sum f(x_1,\ldots,x_k)$ over all (possibly infinitely many) $k$-tuples of distinct points of the point process. Using the Malliavin calculus, the Wiener-It\^{o} chaos expansion of such a functional is computed and used to derive a formula for the variance. Central limit theorems for $U$-statistics of Poisson point processes are shown, with explicit bounds for the Wasserstein distance to a Gaussian random variable. As applications, the intersection process of Poisson hyperplanes and the length of a random geometric graph are investigated.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/12-AOP817 the Annals of Probability (http://www.imstat.org/aop/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

We establish presumably optimal rates of normal convergence with respect to the Kolmogorov distance for a large class of geometric functionals of marked Poisson and binomial point processes on general metric spaces. The rates are valid whenever the geometric functional is expressible as a sum of exponentially stabilizing score functions satisfying a moment condition. By incorporating stabilization methods into the Malliavin-Stein theory, we obtain rates of normal approximation for sums of stabilizing score functions which either improve upon existing rates or are the first of their kind.Our general rates hold for functionals of marked input on spaces more general than full-dimensional subsets of R d , including m-dimensional Riemannian manifolds, m ≤ d. We use the general results to deduce improved and new rates of normal convergence for several functionals in stochastic geometry, including those whose variances re-scale as the volume or the surface area of an underlying set. In particular, we improve upon rates of normal convergence for the k-face and ith intrinsic volume functionals of the convex hull of Poisson and binomial random samples in a smooth convex body in dimension d ≥ 2. We also provide improved rates of normal convergence for statistics of nearest neighbors graphs and high-dimensional data sets, the number of maximal points in a random sample, estimators of surface area and volume arising in set approximation via Voronoi tessellations, and clique counts in generalized random geometric graphs.

Let Z be a Boolean model based on a stationary Poisson process η of compact, convex particles in Euclidean space R d . Let W denote a compact, convex observation window. For a large class of functionals ψ, formulas for mean values of ψ(Z ∩ W ) are available in the literature. The first aim of the present work is to study the asymptotic covariances of general geometric (additive, translation invariant and locally bounded) functionals of Z ∩ W for increasing observation window W , including convergence rates. Our approach is based on the Fock space representation associated with η. For the important special case of intrinsic volumes, the asymptotic covariance matrix is shown to be positive definite and can be explicitly expressed in terms of suitable moments of (local) curvature measures in the isotropic case. The second aim of the paper is to prove multivariate central limit theorems including Berry-Esseen bounds. These are based on a general normal approximation result obtained by the Malliavin-Stein method.

This paper deals with Poisson processes on an arbitrary measurable space. Using a direct approach, we derive formulae for moments and cumulants of a vector of multiple Wiener-Itô integrals with respect to the compensated Poisson process. Also, we present a multivariate central limit theorem for a vector whose components admit a finite chaos expansion of the type of a Poisson U -statistic. The approach is based on recent results of , combining Malliavin calculus and Stein's method; it also yields Berry-Esseen-type bounds. As applications, we discuss moment formulae and central limit theorems for general geometric functionals of intersection processes associated with a stationary Poisson process of k-dimensional flats in R d .

Let η t be a Poisson point process of intensity t ≥ 1 on some state space Y and f be a non-negative symmetric function on Y k for some k ≥ 1. Applying f to all k-tuples of distinct points of η t generates a point process ξ t on the positive real-half axis. The scaling limit of ξ t as t tends to infinity is shown to be a Poisson point process with explicitly known intensity measure. From this, a limit theorem for the the m-th smallest point of ξ t is concluded. This is strengthened by providing a rate of convergence. The technical background includes Wiener-Itô chaos decompositions and the Malliavin calculus of variations on the Poisson space as well as the Chen-Stein method for Poisson approximation. The general result is accompanied by a number of examples from geometric probability and stochastic geometry, such as Poisson k-flats, Poisson random polytopes, random geometric graphs and random simplices. They are obtained by combining the general limit theorem with tools from convex and integral geometry.

A Poisson or a binomial process on an abstract state space and a symmetric function f acting on k-tuples of its points are considered. They induce a point process on the target space of f . The main result is a functional limit theorem which provides an upper bound for an optimal transportation distance between the image process and a Poisson process on the target space. The technical background are a version of Stein's method for Poisson process approximation, a Glauber dynamics representation for the Poisson process and the Malliavin formalism. As applications of the main result, error bounds for approximations of U-statistics by Poisson, compound Poisson and stable random variables are derived, and examples from stochastic geometry are investigated.

Peccati, Solè, Taqqu, and Utzet recently combined Stein's method and Malliavin calculus to obtain a bound for the Wasserstein distance of a Poisson functional and a Gaussian random variable. Convergence in the Wasserstein distance always implies convergence in the Kolmogorov distance at a possibly weaker rate. But there are many examples of central limit theorems having the same rate for both distances. The aim of this paper is to show this behaviour for a large class of Poisson functionals, namely so-called U-statistics of Poisson point processes. The technique used by Peccati et al. is modified to establish a similar bound for the Kolmogorov distance of a Poisson functional and a Gaussian random variable. This bound is evaluated for a U-statistic, and it is shown that the resulting expression is up to a constant the same as it is for the Wasserstein distance.