A Converse to the Spitzer-Rosen Theorem

Abstract

Let $S_n$ be the sum of $n$ independent and identically distributed random variables with zero means and unit variances. The central limit theorem implies that $P(S_n \leq 0) \rightarrow 1/2$, and the Spitzer-Rosen theorem (with refinements by Baum and Katz, Heyde, and Koopmans) provides a rate of convergence in this limit law. In the present paper we investigate the converse of this result. Given a certain rate of convergence of $P(S_n \leq 0)$ to 1/2, what does this imply about the common distribution of the summands?