On the theory of elliptically contoured distributions

The theory of elliptically contoured distributions is presented in an unrestricted setting, with no moment restrictions or assumptions of absolute continuity. These distributions are defined parametrically through their characteristic functions and then studied primarily through the use of stochastic representations which naturally follow from the work of Schoenberg [5] on spherically symmetric distributions. It is shown that the conditional distributions of elliptically contoured distributions are elliptically contoured, and the conditional distributions are precisely identified. In addition, a number of the properties of normal distributions (which constitute a type of elliptically contoured distributions) are shown, in fact, to characterize normality.