Characteristic function

In mathematics, the term "characteristic function" can refer to any of several distinct concepts: * The indicator function of a subset, that is the functionwhich for a given subset A of X, has value 1 at points of A and 0 at points of X − A. * There is an indicator function for affine varieties over a finite field: given a finite set of functions let be their vanishing locus. Then, the function acts as an indicator function for . If then , otherwise, for some , we have , which implies that , hence . * The characteristic function in convex analysis, closely related to the indicator function of a set: * In probability theory, the characteristic function of any probability distribution on the real line is given by the following formula, where X is any random variable with the distribu

Characteristic function

In mathematics, the term "characteristic function" can refer to any of several distinct concepts: * The indicator function of a subset, that is the functionwhich for a given subset A of X, has value 1 at points of A and 0 at points of X − A. * There is an indicator function for affine varieties over a finite field: given a finite set of functions let be their vanishing locus. Then, the function acts as an indicator function for . If then , otherwise, for some , we have , which implies that , hence . * The characteristic function in convex analysis, closely related to the indicator function of a set: * In probability theory, the characteristic function of any probability distribution on the real line is given by the following formula, where X is any random variable with the distribu