L ¹ Estimation in Gaussian Noise: On the Optimality of Linear Estimators

Consider the problem of estimating a random variable X in Gaussian noise under L 1 fidelity criteria. It is well-known that in the L 1 setting, the optimal Bayesian estimator is given by the conditional median. The goal of this work is to characterize the set of prior distributions on X for which the conditional median corresponds to a linear estimator. This work shows that neither discrete nor compactly supported distributions can induce a linear conditional median. Moreover, under certain non-trivial restrictions on the set of allowed probability distributions, the Gaussian is shown to be the only solution that induces a linear conditional median.