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In statistics, a symmetric probability distribution is a probability distribution—an assignment of probabilities to possible occurrences—which is unchanged when its probability density function (for continuous probability distribution) or probability mass function (for discrete random variables) is reflected around a vertical line at some ...
This function is real-valued because it corresponds to a random variable that is symmetric around the origin; however characteristic functions may generally be complex-valued. In probability theory and statistics, the characteristic function of any real-valued random variable completely defines its probability distribution.
This distribution for a = 0, b = 1 and c = 0.5—the mode (i.e., the peak) is exactly in the middle of the interval—corresponds to the distribution of the mean of two standard uniform variables, that is, the distribution of X = (X 1 + X 2) / 2, where X 1, X 2 are two independent random variables with standard uniform distribution in [0, 1]. [1]
If we use instead of the normal distribution, e.g., the Irwin–Hall distribution, we obtain over-all a symmetric 4 parameter distribution, which includes the normal, the uniform, the triangular, the Student t and the Cauchy distribution. This is also more flexible than some other symmetric generalizations of the normal distribution.
Such a continuous distribution is called multimodal (as opposed to unimodal). In symmetric unimodal distributions, such as the normal distribution, the mean (if defined), median and mode all coincide. For samples, if it is known that they are drawn from a symmetric unimodal distribution, the sample mean can be used as an estimate of the ...
The graph of a Gaussian is a characteristic symmetric "bell curve" shape. The parameter a is the height of the curve's peak, b is the position of the center of the peak, and c (the standard deviation, sometimes called the Gaussian RMS width) controls the width of the "bell".
A common special case is the symmetric Dirichlet distribution, where all of the elements making up the parameter vector have the same value. The symmetric case might be useful, for example, when a Dirichlet prior over components is called for, but there is no prior knowledge favoring one component over another.
The standard uniform distribution is a special case of the beta distribution, with parameters (1,1). The sum of two independent uniform distributions U 1 (a,b)+U 2 (c,d) yields a trapezoidal distribution, symmetric about its mean, on the support [a+c,b+d].