Extreme value distributions: the “max-stable distribution” approach

Statistical Physics and Complexity Group meeting

Extreme value distributions: the “max-stable distribution” approach

Event details

The maximum of some large set of independent, identically-distributed random variables is known to approach one of three distributions (Fréchet, Gumbel or Weibull). In this talk, I will show that these are, in fact, special cases of a common distribution, a fact that can be established from a self-similarity property known in the trade as “max stability”. Time permitting, I will also write down a recipe for determining the large-N limiting forms, since this is likely to be most useful in applications.