Characteristic function

In mathematics, the term "characteristic function" can refer to any of several distinct concepts:

• As a synonym for the indicator function, that is the function

$\mathbf{1}_A\colon X \to \{0, 1\},$

which for a given subset A of X, has value 1 at points of A and 0 at points of X − A.

• In probability theory, the characteristic function of any probability distribution on the real line is given by the following formula, where X is any random variable with the distribution in question:

$\varphi_X(t) = \operatorname{E}\left(e^{itX}\right)$,

where E means expected value. This concept extends to multivariate distributions.

• The characteristic function in convex analysis:

$\chi_{A} (x) := \begin{cases} 0, & x \in A; \\ + \infty, & x \not \in A. \end{cases}$

• The characteristic function of a cooperative game in game theory.
• The characteristic polynomial in linear algebra.
• The characteristic state function in statistical mechanics.
• The Euler characteristic, a topological invariant.
• The Receiver operating characteristic in statistical decision theory.
• The point characteristic function in statistics.