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A.4 Some Important Probability Distributions 657
• “Beta-Gamma” algebra: If γ
a
is a gamma r.v. with parameter a,then
γ
a
law
= β
a,b
γ
a+b
where β
a,b
is a beta(a, b) r.v. independent of γ
a+b
.
A particular case of the beta-gamma algebra is
G
2
law
=2γ
1/2
law
=2β
1/2,1/2
e
where G is a gaussian variable, e
law
= γ
1
is a standard exponential variable,
independent of the arc-sine variable β
1/2,1/2
.
See Chaumont and Yor [161] and Dufresne [278] for other algebraic properties.
A.4.3 Poisson Law
P(X = n) e
−λ
λ
n
n!
Characteristic function exp
λ(e
iu
− 1)
Poisson law, λ>0
Mean λ
Variance λ