Combinant

In the mathematical theory of probability, the combinants cn of a random variable X are defined via the combinant-generating function G(t), which is defined from the moment generating function M(z) as

G X ( t ) = M X ( log ( 1 + t ) ) {\displaystyle G_{X}(t)=M_{X}(\log(1+t))}

which can be expressed directly in terms of a random variable X as

G X ( t ) := E [ ( 1 + t ) X ] , t R , {\displaystyle G_{X}(t):=E\left[(1+t)^{X}\right],\quad t\in \mathbb {R} ,}

wherever this expectation exists.

The nth combinant can be obtained as the nth derivatives of the logarithm of combinant generating function evaluated at –1 divided by n factorial:

c n = 1 n ! n t n log ( G ( t ) ) | t = 1 {\displaystyle c_{n}={\frac {1}{n!}}{\frac {\partial ^{n}}{\partial t^{n}}}\log(G(t)){\bigg |}_{t=-1}}

Important features in common with the cumulants are:

  • the combinants share the additivity property of the cumulants;
  • for infinite divisibility (probability) distributions, both sets of moments are strictly positive.

References

  • Kittel, W.; De Wolf, E. A. Soft Multihadron Dynamics. pp. 306 ff. ISBN 978-9812562951. Google Books
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Theory of probability distributions
  • probability mass function (pmf)
  • probability density function (pdf)
  • cumulative distribution function (cdf)
  • quantile function
  • raw moment
  • central moment
  • mean
  • variance
  • standard deviation
  • skewness
  • kurtosis
  • L-moment
  • moment-generating function (mgf)
  • characteristic function
  • probability-generating function (pgf)
  • cumulant
  • combinant


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