On Estimation of a Functional of a Probability Density Function

The problem of estimating the integral of the square of a probability density function is considered, It is shown that under some regularity conditions the kernel estimate of this functional is asymptotically normally distributed. An expression for the smoothing parameter that minimizes the mean square error of the estimate is derived. Results of simulation studies are included. AMS (1980) Subject Classification: Primary 62G07 Secondary 60FOS.