[Math] Exponential (or other) families of distributions on manifolds.

dg.differential-geometrypr.probability

The exponential family is a general parametrized class of probability distributions on $R^n$ that has many nice properties (ML estimation among them) and includes most of the "standard" distributions one encounters (Gaussian, multinomial, exponential, $\chi^2$ etc).

Are there similarly well-defined parametrized families of distributions for manifold-valued random variables ? Specifically, if you have a general Riemannian manifold ? Or asked another way, is there an equivalent notion of an "exponential family" for a Riemannian manifold ?

Best Answer

The book Directional Statistics by Mardia and Jupp discusses concrete examples of distributions on:

  1. Surface of the unit hypersphere
  2. On Stiefel Manifolds
  3. Maybe some others

EDIT In particular, have a look at ยง13.4.2 that discusses distributions on more general manifolds (e.g., on compact Riemannian manifolds). That section also provides several useful references.

I also recalled another source that might be useful to you:

Matrix Variate Distributions by Gupta and Nagar. In particular, see chapter 8.

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