On necessary and sufficient conditions for the self-normalized central limit theorem In Honor of Professor Chuanrong Lu on His 85th Birthday

Let X_1, X_2,... be a sequence of independent random variables and S_n=sum X_1 from i=1 to n and V_n^2=sum X_1~2 from i=1 to n . When the elements of the sequence are i.i.d., it is known that the self-normalized sum S_n/V_n converges to a standard normal distribution if and only if max1≤i≤n|X_i|/V_n → 0 in probability and the mean of X_1 is zero. In this paper, sufficient conditions for the self-normalized central limit theorem are obtained for general independent random variables. It is also shown that if max1≤i≤n|X_i|/V_n → 0 in probability, then these sufficient conditions are necessary.