Exact mean and covariance formulas after diagonal transformations of a multivariate normal

Rebecca Morrison; Estelle Basor

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arXiv · 2407.00240

Exact mean and covariance formulas after diagonal transformations of a multivariate normal

Rebecca Morrison·Estelle Basor

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Abstract

Consider $\boldsymbol X \sim \mathcal{N}(\boldsymbol 0, \boldsymbol \Sigma)$ and $\boldsymbol Y = (f_1(X_1), f_2(X_2),\dots, f_d(X_d))$. We call this a diagonal transformation of a multivariate normal. In this paper we compute exactly the mean vector and covariance matrix of the random vector $\boldsymbol Y.$ This is done two different ways: One approach uses a series expansion for the function $f_i$ and the other a transform method. We compute several examples, show how the covariance entries can be estimated, and compare the theoretical results with numerical ones.

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Rebecca Morrison, Estelle Basor. 2024-06-28. Exact mean and covariance formulas after diagonal transformations of a multivariate normal. https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.00240

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