Small deviation probability via chaining

We obtain several extensions of Talagrand’s lower bound for the small deviation probability using metric entropy. For Gaussian processes, our investigations are focused on processes with sub-polynomial and, respectively, exponential behaviour of covering numbers. The corresponding results are also proved for non-Gaussian symmetric stable processes, both for the cases of critically small and critically large entropy. The results extensively use the classical chaining technique; at the same time they are meant to explore the limits of this method.