Abstract
The distributions of the product and ratio of independent random variables arise in many applied problems. These have been extensively studied by many researchers. In this paper, the distributions of the product | XY | and ratio \(\left| {\frac{X}{Y}} \right|\) have been derived, when X and Y are Maxwell and Rayleigh random variables and are distributed independently of each other. The associated cdfs, pdfs, kth moments, entropies, etc., have been given. To describe the possible shapes of the associated pdfs and entropies, the respective plots are provided. The percentage points associated with the cdfs of the product and ratio have been tabulated.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abramowitz M, Stegun IA (1970) Handbook of mathematical functions, with formulas, graphs, and mathematical tables. Dover, New York
Balakrishnan N, Nevzorov VB (2003) A primer of statistical distributions. Wiley, New Jersy
Bhargava RP, Khatri CG (1981) The distribution of product of independent beta random variables with application to multivariate analysis. Ann Inst Statist Math 33:287–296
Cigizoglu HK, Bayazit M (2000) A generalized seasonal model for flow duration curve. Hydrol Process 14:1053–1067
Frisch U, Sornette D (1997) Extreme deviations and applications. J Phys I France 7:1155–1171
Galambos J, Simonelli I (2005) Products of random variables—applications to problems of physics and to arithmetical functions. CRC Press, Boca Raton
Gradshteyn IS, Ryzhik IM (2000) Table of integrals, series, and products, 6th edn. Academic, San Diego
Grubel HG (1968) Internationally diversified portfolios: welfare gains capital flows. Am Econ Rev 58:1299–1314
Korhonen PJ, Narula SC (1989) The probability distribution of the ratio of the absolute values of two normal variables. J Statist Comput Simul 33:173–182
Ladekarl M, Jensen V, Nielsen B (1997) Total number of cancer cell nuclei and mitoses in breast tumors estimated by the optical disector. Anal Quant Cyto Histol 19:329–337
Lee RY, Holland BS, Flueck JA (1979) Distribution of a ratio of correlated gamma random variables. SIAM J Appl Math 36:304–320
Malik HJ, Trudel R (1986) Probability density function of the product and quotient of two correlated exponential random variables. Can Math Bull 29:413–418
Marsaglia G (1965) Ratios of normal variables and ratios of sums of uniform variables. J Am Statist Assoc 60:193–204
Nadarajah S (2005) On the product and ratio of laplace and bessel random variables. J Appl Math 4:393–402
Nadarajah S, Ali MM (2005) On the product and ratio of t and laplace random variables. Pak J Statist 21:1–14
Nadarajah S, Gupta AA (2005) On the product and ratio of Bessel random variables. Int J Math Math Sci 18:2977–2989
Nadarajah S, Kotz S (2005) On the product and ratio of pearson type VII and Laplace random variables. Aust J Statist 34(1.1):11–23
Pham-Gia T (2000) Distributions of the ratios of independent beta variables and applications. Commun Statist—Theory Methods 29:2693–2715
Press SJ (1969) The t ratio distribution. J Am Statist Assoc 64:242–252
Prudnikov AP, Brychkov YA, Marichev OI (1986). Integrals and Series, vol 1, 2, and 3. Gordon and Breach Science Amsterdam
Rathie PN, Rohrer HG, (1987) The exact distribution of products of independent random variables. Metron 45:235–245
Rokeach M, Kliejunas P (1972) Behavior as a function of attitude-toward-object and attitude-toward-situation. J Pers Social Psychol 22:194–201
Sakamoto H (1943) On the distributions of the product and the quotient of the independent and uniformly distributed random variables. Tohoku Math J 49:243–260
Shannon CE, (1948) A mathematical theory of communication. Bell System Tech J 27:379–432
Sornette D (1998) Multiplicative processes and power laws. Phys Rev E, 57:4811–4813
Sornette D (2004) Critical phenomena in natural sciences, chaos, fractals, self-organization and dosorder: concepts and tools, 2nd edn. Springer Series in Synergetics, Heidelberg
Springer MD, Thompson WE (1970) The distribution of products of beta, gamma and Gaussian random variables. SIAM J Appl Math 18:721–737
Tang J, Gupta AK (1984) On the distribution of the product of independent beta random variables. Statist Probab Lett 2:165–168
Wallgren CM (1980) The distribution of the product of two correlated t variates. J Am Statist Assoc 75:996–1000
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Shakil, M., Golam Kibria, B.M. & Chang, KC. Distributions of the product and ratio of Maxwell and Rayleigh random variables. Stat Papers 49, 729–747 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00362-007-0052-9
Received:
Revised:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00362-007-0052-9