MDM Reference • About the reference
About This Reference
The Matrix Distribution Math Reference is an independent academic compendium. It exists to gather, in a single orderly place, the definitions and relations of mathematical statistics and of wave form modelling.
What the reference is
The reference is a body of expository essays. Each essay treats one theme, states its assumptions, and follows the reasoning to its conclusions. The essays are written to be read in sequence or singly, and the glossary holds the symbols in common across them. The tone throughout is that of a scholarly manual rather than of a popular account.
What the reference is not
The reference does not offer guidance for any particular person, institution or circumstance. It makes no representation about any product or service, and it names none. It is not a substitute for a taught course, and it does not claim to settle questions that remain open in the literature. Where the essays simplify, they simplify in the open, naming the step that has been shortened.
How it is compiled
The text is prepared at the compendium desk and reviewed against the primary literature before it is published. Each essay is checked for internal consistency of notation and for the correctness of its stated conditions. Corrections are welcome, and the address of the desk is given on the contact page. A correction that is accepted is folded into the essay and noted in the editorial record.
The editorial stance
The editors hold that a reference should be explicit about the limits of what it states. For that reason assumptions are named whenever a result depends on them, estimates are marked, and claims about the world are kept apart from claims about models. This stance is the reason the essays so often pause to restate a condition before pressing on.
Who may find it useful
The reference is written for students of the mathematical sciences, for readers returning to the subject after an interval, and for anyone who wishes to see how the pieces of statistical theory fit together. It assumes a willingness to follow a line of reasoning, but it assumes no prior acquaintance with the particular notation used here.
Contact
Questions about scope, corrections, and permissions are handled at the compendium desk. The contact page carries the address, the telephone number and an electronic mailbox, and a short form is provided for written messages. The desk answers in the order in which messages arrive and holds no other channel open.
The shape of each cell
Every cell opens with a short statement of its theme, then takes up the definitions the theme needs, and closes with the cautions that attach to its results. The order is deliberate: a reader meets the caution after the reasoning, at the point where it can be weighed against the result it qualifies. A reader short of time may read the opening and the closing of a cell and still carry away its sense.
On the name
The name of the reference joins two of its themes: the matrix, which is the natural home of joint dispersion, and the distribution, which is the natural home of a single variable's wandering. The word maths worn beside them marks the work as mathematical rather than practical. The name is an account of the contents and not a claim of authority.