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Fitting A Mixture Distribution to Data: Tutorial

Other Statistics 2020-10-13 v2 Machine Learning Methodology Machine Learning

Abstract

This paper is a step-by-step tutorial for fitting a mixture distribution to data. It merely assumes the reader has the background of calculus and linear algebra. Other required background is briefly reviewed before explaining the main algorithm. In explaining the main algorithm, first, fitting a mixture of two distributions is detailed and examples of fitting two Gaussians and Poissons, respectively for continuous and discrete cases, are introduced. Thereafter, fitting several distributions in general case is explained and examples of several Gaussians (Gaussian Mixture Model) and Poissons are again provided. Model-based clustering, as one of the applications of mixture distributions, is also introduced. Numerical simulations are also provided for both Gaussian and Poisson examples for the sake of better clarification.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1901.06708,
  title  = {Fitting A Mixture Distribution to Data: Tutorial},
  author = {Benyamin Ghojogh and Aydin Ghojogh and Mark Crowley and Fakhri Karray},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1901.06708},
  year   = {2020}
}

Comments

12 pages, 9 figures, 1 table. Some typos are corrected in this version