Exponential family distributions | Continuous distributions | Infinitely divisible probability distributions
Inverse Gaussian distribution
In probability theory, the inverse Gaussian distribution (also known as the Wald distribution) is a two-parameter family of continuous probability distributions with support on (0,∞). Its probability density function is given by for x > 0, where is the mean and is the shape parameter. The inverse Gaussian distribution has several properties analogous to a Gaussian distribution. The name can be misleading: it is an "inverse" only in that, while the Gaussian describes a Brownian motion's level at a fixed time, the inverse Gaussian describes the distribution of the time a Brownian motion with positive drift takes to reach a fixed positive level. Its cumulant generating function (logarithm of the characteristic function) is the inverse of the cumulant generating function of a Gaussian random variable. To indicate that a random variable X is inverse Gaussian-distributed with mean μ and shape parameter λ we write . (Wikipedia).
