Fractional Edgeworth Expansion: Corrections to the Gaussian-L\'evy Central Limit Theorem

Abstract

In this article we generalize the classical Edgeworth expansion for the probability density function (PDF) of sums of a finite number of symmetric independent identically distributed random variables with a finite variance to sums of variables with an infinite variance which converge by the generalized central limit theorem to a L\'evy $\alpha$-stable density function. Our correction may be written by means of a series of fractional derivatives of the L\'evy and the conjugate L\'evy PDFs. This series expansion is general and applies also to the Gaussian regime. To describe the terms in the series expansion, we introduce a new family of special functions and briefly discuss their properties. We implement our generalization to the distribution of the momentum for atoms undergoing Sisyphus cooling, and show the improvement of our leading order approximation compared to previous approximations. In vicinity of the transition between L\'{e}vy and Gauss behaviors, convergence to asymptotic results slows down.