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We analyze the spectral distribution of symmetric random matrices with correlated entries. While we assume that the diagonals of these random matrices are stochastically independent, the elements of the diagonals are taken to be correlated.…

Probability · Mathematics 2012-05-31 Olga Friesen , Matthias Löwe

This article provides a concise overview of the main mathematical theory of Benford's law in a form accessible to scientists and students who have had first courses in calculus and probability. In particular, one of the main objectives here…

Statistics Theory · Mathematics 2020-04-22 Arno Berger , Theodore P. Hill

This article presents a concise proof of the famous Benford's law when the distribution has a Riemann integrable probability density function and provides a criterion to judge whether a distribution obeys the law. The proof is intuitive and…

Statistics Theory · Mathematics 2024-08-07 Luohan Wang , Bo-Qiang Ma

Benford's Law (BL) or the Significant Digit Law defines the probability distribution of the first digit of numerical values in a data sample. This Law is observed in many naturally occurring datasets. It can be seen as a measure of…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2021-10-25 Surya Kant Sahu , Abhinav Java , Arshad Shaikh , Yannic Kilcher

Benford's law states that the occurrence of significant digits in many data sets is not uniform but tends to follow a logarithmic distribution such that the smaller digits appear as first significant digits more frequently than the larger…

Data Analysis, Statistics and Probability · Physics 2011-11-07 Tariq Ahmad Mir

A phenomenological law, called Benford's law, states that the occurrence of the first digit, i.e., $1,2,...,9$, of numbers from many real world sources is not uniformly distributed, but instead favors smaller ones according to a logarithmic…

High Energy Physics - Phenomenology · Physics 2010-04-22 Lijing Shao , Bo-Qiang Ma

Exponential growth occurs when the growth rate of a given quantity is proportional to the quantity's current value. Surprisingly, when exponential growth data is plotted as a simple histogram disregarding the time dimension, a remarkable…

Statistics Theory · Mathematics 2019-01-08 Alex Ely Kossovsky

It is well-known that sequences such as the Fibonacci numbers and the factorials satisfy Benford's Law, that is, leading digits in these sequences occur with frequencies given by $P(d)=\log_{10}(1+1/d)$, $d=1,2,\dots,9$. In this paper, we…

Number Theory · Mathematics 2021-08-10 Zhaodong Cai , A. J. Hildebrand , Junxian Li

The Newcomb-Benford law, also known as the first-digit law, gives the probability distribution associated with the first digit of a dataset, so that, for example, the first significant digit has a probability of $30.1$ % of being $1$ and…

Popular Physics · Physics 2021-08-25 Andrea Burgos , Andrés Santos

Large Language Models (LLMs) exhibit impressive performance on complex reasoning tasks, yet they frequently fail on basic numerical problems, producing incorrect outputs. Inspired by Benford's Law, a statistical pattern in which lower…

Computation and Language · Computer Science 2025-12-01 Jiandong Shao , Yao Lu , Jianfei Yang

Monte carlo simulation of paths of a large number of impinging electrons in a multi-layered solid allows to define area of spreading electrons (A) to capture overall behavior of the solid. This parameter 'A' follows power law with electron…

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics · Physics 2016-01-11 Moirangthem Shubhakanta Singh , R. K. Brojen Singh

We show that the laws of Zipf and Benford, obeyed by scores of numerical data generated by many and diverse kinds of natural phenomena and human activity are related to the focal expression of a generalized thermodynamic structure. This…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2015-05-19 Carlo Altamirano , Alberto Robledo

We explain Kossovsky's generalization of Benford's law which is a formula that approximates the distribution of leftmost digits in finite sequences of natural data and apply it to six sequences of data including populations of US cities and…

Methodology · Statistics 2023-08-16 Alex E. Kossovsky , Wayne M. Lawton

The propagation of a coherent optical linear wave in an ensemble of semiconductor quantum dots is considered. It is shown that a distribution of transition dipole moments of the quantum dots changes significantly the polarization and Beer's…

Optics · Physics 2010-03-03 G. T. Adamashvili , A. A. Maradudin

The scope of this paper is twofold. First, to emphasize the use of the mod 1 map in exploring the digit distribution of random variables. We show that the well-known base- and scale-invariance of Benford variables are consequences of their…

Probability · Mathematics 2013-12-24 Azar Khosravani , Constantin Rasinariu

We prove that many sequences of positive numbers $(a_n)$ defined by finite linear difference equations $a_{n+k}=c_{k-1}a_{n+k-1}+...+c_0a_n$ with suitable non negative reals coefficients $c_i$ satisfy Bendford's Law on the first digit in…

Dynamical Systems · Mathematics 2010-08-18 Hugues Deligny , Paul Jolissaint

Benford's law, or the law of the first significant digit, has been subjected to numerous studies due to its unique applications in financial fields, especially accounting and auditing. However, studies that addressed the law's establishment…

General Economics · Economics 2025-01-07 M. R. Sarkandiz

The goal of this note is to show that a widespread claim about Benford's Law, namely, that the range of every Benford distribution spans at least several orders of magnitude, is false. The proof is constructive and concrete examples are…

Probability · Mathematics 2020-11-30 Theodore P. Hill

The occurrence of digits one through nine as the leftmost nonzero digit of numbers from real world sources is often not uniformly distributed, but instead, is distributed according to a logarithmic law, known as Benford's law. Here, we…

Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics · Physics 2010-05-14 Lijing Shao , Bo-Qiang Ma

A general statistical thermodynamic theory that considers given sequences of x-integers to play the role of particles of known type in an isolated elastic system is proposed. By also considering some explicit discrete probability…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2009-11-10 Enrique Canessa