Are there any stable law distributions where the sum of the random variables is distributed the same as the original

probabilitystatistics

I am currently trying to find a distribution where the sum of iid random variables from the distribution is equivalent to the distribution of each of the random variables itself. More concretely, I am looking for a distribution $F$ where if $X_1, \ldots, X_n \overset{iid}\sim F$, then

$$
\sum_{i=1}^n X_i \sim F
$$

for any $n$.

The closest thing I know of is the Cauchy but the Cauchy works with the average, and the Cauchy does not admit defined moments. I have tried to work with a stable law distribution and play around with terms, but have not been able to find a specification that works. Could someone guide me to a distribution which would work as above? Thanks.

Best Answer

There is no such distribution except the trivial one where $X_i=0$. If $\phi$ is the characteristic function then we get $\phi^{n}\equiv \phi$ for all $n$. If $|\phi (t)| <1$ this gives (by letting $n \to \infty$) $\phi (t)=0$. But $\phi (0)=1$ and $\phi$ is continuous so we must have $|\phi (t)| =1$ for $|t|$ sufficiently small. It is easy to see from this $X_1=0$ almost surely.

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