Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-29T19:38:37.081Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Distances in Gaussian point sets

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2008

Peter Clifford
Affiliation:
Mathematical Institute, 24-29 St Giles, Oxford 0X1 3LB
N. J. B. Green
Affiliation:
Physical Chemistry Laboratory, South Parks Road, Oxford

Abstract

The joint distribution of the n(n− l)/2 distances between n normally distributed points in d dimensions is studied. Moment generating functions and probability density functions are obtained. It is shown that when n = d the squared distances are jointly exponentially distributed subject only to the constraint that a valid n point configuration is prescribed. In the case n = d = 3 the distributions of the ordered distance are obtained explicitly.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge Philosophical Society 1985

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

[1]Anderson, T. W.. The non-central Wishart distribution and certain problems of multi-variate statistics. Ann. Statist. 17 (1946), 409431.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[2]Barra, J. R.. Mathematical Basis of Statistics (Academic Press, 1981).Google Scholar
[3]Bickell, P. J. and Breiman, L.. Sums of functions of nearest neighbour distances, moment bounds, limit theorems and a goodness of fit test. Ann. Probab. 11 (1983), 185214.Google Scholar
[4]Kendall, D. G. and Kendall, W. S.. Alignments in two-dimensional random sets of points. Adv. in Appl. Probab. 12 (1980), 380424.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[5]Kendall, W. S.. Random Gaussian triangles. (To appear.)Google Scholar
[6]Mahalanobis, P. C., Bose, R. C. and Roy, S. N.. Normalisation of variates and the use of rectangular coordinates in the theory of sampling distributions. Sankhyā 3 (1937), 140.Google Scholar
[7]Muirhead, R. J.. Aspects of Multivariate Statistical Theory (John Wiley, 1982).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[8]Rao, C. R.. Linear Statistical Inference and Its Applications (John Wiley, 1965).Google Scholar
[9]Schoenberg, I. J.. Metric spaces and positive definite functions. Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 44 522536.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[10]Silverman, B. W. and Brown, T. C.. Short distances, flat triangles and Poisson limits. J. Appl. Probab. 15 815825.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[11]Small, C.. Random uniform triangles and the alignment problem. Math. Proc. Cambridge Philos. Soc. 91 (1982), 315322.CrossRefGoogle Scholar