Singular random matrix decompositions: distributions

Assuming that Y has a singular matrix variate elliptically contoured distribution with respect to the Hausdorff measure, the distributions of several matrices associated to QR, modified QR, SV and polar decompositions of matrix Y are determined, for central and non-central, non-singular and singular cases, as well as their relationship to the Wishart and pseudo-Wishart generalized singular and non-singular distributions. Some of these results are also applied to two particular subfamilies of elliptical distributions, the singular matrix variate normal distribution and the singular matrix variate symmetric Pearson type VII distribution.     

Distributions of order statistics and linear combinations of order statistics from an elliptical distribution as mixtures of unified skew-elliptical distributions

We consider here the distributions of order statistics and linear combinations of order statistics from an elliptical distribution. We show that these distributions can be expressed as mixtures of unified skew-elliptical distributions, and then use these mixture representations to derive their moment generating functions and moments, when they exist.     

Fractional integral operators in the complex matrix variate case

A formal definition of fractional integrals in the complex matrix variate case is given here. This definition will encompass all the various fractional integral operators introduced by various authors in the real scalar and matrix cases. The new definition is introduced in terms of M-convolutions of products and ratios of matrices in the complex domain. Their connections to statistical distribution theory, Mellin convolutions, M-transforms and Mellin transform are pointed out. Some basic properties are given and a pathway extension of the new definition is also given. The pathway extension will provide a switching mechanism to move among three different families of functions.     

A class of bivariate exponential distributions

We introduce a class of absolutely continuous bivariate exponential distributions, generated from quadratic forms of standard multivariate normal variates.This class is quite flexible and tractable, since it is regulated by two parameters only, derived from the matrices of the quadratic forms: the correlation and the correlation of the squares of marginal components. A simple representation of the whole class is given in terms of 4-dimensional matrices. Integral forms allow evaluating the distribution function and the density function in most of the cases.The class is introduced as a subclass of bivariate distributions with chi-square marginals; bounds for the dimension of the generating normal variable are underlined in the general case.Finally, we sketch the extension to the multivariate case.     

Singular matrix variate beta distribution

In this paper, we determine the symmetrised density of doubly noncentral singular matrix variate beta type I and II distributions under different definitions. As particular cases we obtain the noncentral singular matrix variate beta type I and II distributions and the corresponding joint density of the nonnull eigenvalues. In addition, we propose an alternative approach to find the corresponding nonsymmetrised densities. From the latter, we solve the integral proposed by Constantine [Noncentral distribution problems in multivariate analysis, Ann. Math. Statist. 34 (1963) 1270-1285] and Khatri [A note on Mitra's paper “A density free approach to the matrix variate beta distribution”, Sankhyā A 32 (1970) 311-318] and reconsidered in Farrell [Multivariate Calculation: Use of the Continuous Groups, Springer Series in Statistics, Springer, New York, 1985, p. 191], see also Díaz-García and Gutiérrez-Jáimez [Noncentral matrix variate beta distribution, Comunicación Técnica, No. I-06-06 (PE/CIMAT), Guanajuato, México, 2006, 〈http://www.cimat.mx/biblioteca/RepTec/index.html?m=2〉], for the singular and nonsingular cases.     

Statistical theory of shape under elliptical models and singular value decompositions

The size-and-shape and shape distributions based on non-central and non-isotropic elliptical distributions are derived in this paper by using the singular value decomposition (SVD). The general densities require the computation of new integrals involving zonal polynomials. The invariance of the central shape distribution is also proved. Finally, some particular densities are applied in a classical data of Biology, and the inference based on exact distributions is performed after choosing the best model by using a modified BIC^∗ criterion.     

Sequences of elliptical distributions and mixtures of normal distributions

Two conditions are shown under which elliptical distributions are scale mixtures of normal distributions with respect to probability distributions. The issue of finding the mixing distribution function is also considered. As a unified theoretical framework, it is also shown that any scale mixture of normal distributions is always a term of a sequence of elliptical distributions, increasing in dimension, and that all the terms of this sequence are also scale mixtures of normal distributions sharing the same mixing distribution function. Some examples are shown as applications of these concepts, showing the way of finding the mixing distribution function.     

Invariant scale matrix hypothesis tests under elliptical symmetry

The usual assumption in multivariate hypothesis testing is that the sample consists of n independent, identically distributed Gaussian m-vectors. In this paper this assumption is weakened by considering a class of distributions for which the vector observations are not necessarily either Gaussian or independent. This class contains the elliptically symmetric laws with densities of the form f(X(n × m)) = ψ[tr(X ? M)′ (X ? M)Σ^?1]. For testing the equality of k scale matrices and for the sphericity hypothesis it is shown, by using the structure of the underlying distribution rather than any specific form of the density, that the usual invariant normal-theory tests are exactly robust, for both the null and non-null cases, under this wider class.     

On Mardia's and Song's measures of kurtosis in elliptical distributions

The main objective of this paper is the calculation and the comparative study of two general measures of multivariate kurtosis, namely Mardia's measure β_2,p and Song's measure S(f). In this context, general formulas for the said measures are derived for the broad family of the elliptically contoured symmetric distributions and also for specific members of this family, like the multivariate t-distribution, the multivariate Pearson type II, the multivariate Pearson type VII, the multivariate symmetric Kotz type distribution and the uniform distribution in the unit sphere. Analytic expressions for computing Shannon and Rényi entropies are obtained under the elliptic family. The behaviour of Mardia's and Song's measures, their similarities and differences, possible interpretations and uses in practice are investigated by comparing them in specific members of the elliptic family of multivariate distributions. An empirical estimator of Song's measure is moreover proposed and its asymptotic distribution is investigated under the elliptic family of multivariate distributions.     

Applications of average and projected systems to the study of coherent systems

In this paper, we introduce the concepts of average and projected systems associated to a coherent (parent) system. We analyze several aspects of these notions and show that they can be useful tools in studying the performance of coherent systems with non-exchangeable components. We show that the average and projected systems are especially useful in studying the tail behavior of reliability, hazard rate and mean residual life functions of the parent system and also in obtaining the tail best systems (under different criteria) by permuting the components at the system structure. Moreover, they can be useful in assessing how the asymmetry of the joint distribution of the component lifetimes (with respect to permutations of the components in the system structure) affects the system performance.     

Minimum and maximum distances between failures in binary sequences

The minimum and maximum distances denoting the extreme numbers of successes between two successive failures in binary sequences, are considered. Exact marginal and joint probability distributions of these statistics are obtained via combinatorial analysis. Applications related to urn models and system reliability are studied and clarify further the theoretical results.     

Bivariate distributions characterized by one family of conditionals and conditional percentile or mode functions

It is well known that full knowledge of all conditional distributions will typically serve to completely characterize a bivariate distribution. Partial knowledge will often suffice. For example, knowledge of the conditional distribution of X given Y and the conditional mean of Y given X is often adequate to determine the joint distribution of X and Y. In this paper, we investigate the extent to which a conditional percentile function or a conditional mode function (of Y given X), together with knowledge of the conditional distribution of X given Y will determine the joint distribution. Finally, using this methodology a new characterization of the classical bivariate normal distribution is given.     

A new class of bivariate distributions and its mixture

A new class of bivariate distributions is presented in this paper. The procedure used in this paper is based on a latent random variable with exponential distribution. The model introduced here is of Marshall-Olkin type. A mixture of the proposed bivariate distributions is also discussed. The results obtained here generalize those of the bivariate exponential distribution present in the literature.     

Joint distribution of run statistics in partially exchangeable processes

Let {X_i}_i≥1 be an infinite sequence of recurrent partially exchangeable random variables with two possible outcomes as either “1” (success) or “0” (failure). In this paper we obtain the joint distribution of success and failure run statistics in {X_i}_i≥1. The results can be used to obtain the joint distribution of runs in ordinary Markov chains, exchangeable and independent sequences.     

Multivariate measures of skewness for the skew-normal distribution

The main objective of this work is to calculate and compare different measures of multivariate skewness for the skew-normal family of distributions. For this purpose, we consider the Mardia (1970) [10], Malkovich and Afifi (1973) [9], Isogai (1982) [17], Srivastava (1984) [15], Song (2001) [14], Móri et al. (1993) [11], Balakrishnan et al. (2007) [3] and Kollo (2008) [7] measures of skewness. The exact expressions of all measures of skewness, except for Song’s, are derived for the family of skew-normal distributions, while Song’s measure of shape is approximated by the use of delta method. The behavior of these measures, their similarities and differences, possible interpretations, and their practical use in testing for multivariate normal are studied by evaluating their power in the case of some specific members of the multivariate skew-normal family of distributions.     

Characteristic functions of scale mixtures of multivariate skew-normal distributions

We obtain the characteristic function of scale mixtures of skew-normal distributions both in the univariate and multivariate cases. The derivation uses the simple stochastic relationship between skew-normal distributions and scale mixtures of skew-normal distributions. In particular, we describe the characteristic function of skew-normal, skew-t, and other related distributions.     

Connection between the Hadamard and matrix products with an application to matrix-variate Birnbaum-Saunders distributions

In this paper, we establish a connection between the Hadamard product and the usual matrix multiplication. In addition, we study some new properties of the Hadamard product and explore the inverse problem associated with the established connection, which facilitates diverse applications. Furthermore, we propose a matrix-variate generalized Birnbaum-Saunders (GBS) distribution. Three representations of the matrix-variate GBS density are provided, one of them by using the mentioned connection. The main motivation of this article is based on the fact that the representation of the matrix-variate GBS density based on element-by-element specification does not allow matrix transformations. Consequently, some statistical procedures based on this representation, such as multivariate data analysis and statistical shape theory, cannot be performed. For this reason, the primary goal of this work is to obtain a matrix representation of the matrix-variate GBS density that is useful for some statistical applications. When the GBS density is expressed by means of a matrix representation based on the Hadamard product, such a density is defined in terms of the original matrices, as is common for many matrix-variate distributions, allowing matrix transformations to be handled in a natural way and then suitable statistical procedures to be developed.     

Limit distributions of V- and U-statistics in terms of multiple stochastic Wiener-type integrals

We describe the limit distribution of V- and U-statistics in a new fashion. In the case of V-statistics the limit variable is a multiple stochastic integral with respect to an abstract Brownian bridge G_Q. This extends the pioneer work of Filippova (1961) [8]. In the case of U-statistics we obtain a linear combination of G_Q-integrals with coefficients stemming from Hermite Polynomials. This is an alternative representation of the limit distribution as given by Dynkin and Mandelbaum (1983) [7] or Rubin and Vitale (1980) [13]. It is in total accordance with their results for product kernels.