Exponential Distribution

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##### Exponential Distribution

    #include <boost/math/distributions/exponential.hpp>

    template <class RealType = double,
              class Policy   = policies::policy<> >
    class exponential_distribution;

    typedef exponential_distribution<> exponential;

    template <class RealType, class Policy>
    class exponential_distribution
    {
    public:
       typedef RealType value_type;
       typedef Policy   policy_type;

       exponential_distribution(RealType lambda = 1);

       RealType lambda()const;
    };

The exponential distribution is a continuous probability distribution with PDF:

It is often used to model the time between independent events that happen at a constant average rate.

The following graph shows how the distribution changes for different values of the rate parameter lambda:

##### Member Functions

    exponential_distribution(RealType lambda = 1);

Constructs an Exponential distribution with parameter lambda. Lambda is defined as the reciprocal of the scale parameter.

Requires lambda > 0, otherwise calls domain_error.

    RealType lambda()const;

Accessor function returns the lambda parameter of the distribution.

##### Non-member Accessors

All the usual non-member accessor functions that are generic to all distributions are supported: Cumulative Distribution Function, Probability Density Function, Quantile, Hazard Function, Cumulative Hazard Function, mean, median, mode, variance, standard deviation, skewness, kurtosis, kurtosis_excess, range and support.

The domain of the random variable is [0, +∞].

##### Accuracy

The exponential distribution is implemented in terms of the standard library functions `exp`, `log`, `log1p` and `expm1` and as such should have very low error rates.

##### Implementation

In the following table λ is the parameter lambda of the distribution, x is the random variate, p is the probability and q = 1-p.

Function | Implementation Notes
--- | ---
pdf | Using the relation: pdf = λ * exp(-λ * x)
cdf | Using the relation: p = 1 - exp(-x * λ) = -expm1(-x * λ)
cdf complement | Using the relation: q = exp(-x * λ)
quantile | Using the relation: x = -log(1-p) / λ = -log1p(-p) / λ
quantile from the complement | Using the relation: x = -log(q) / λ
mean | 1/λ
standard deviation | 1/λ
mode | 0
skewness | 2
kurtosis | 9
kurtosis excess | 6

##### references

- Weisstein, Eric W. "Exponential Distribution." From MathWorld--A Wolfram Web Resource
- Wolfram Mathematica calculator
- NIST Exploratory Data Analysis
- Wikipedia Exponential distribution

(See also the reference documentation for the related Extreme Distributions.)

- Extreme Value Distributions, Theory and Applications Samuel Kotz & Saralees Nadarajah discuss the relationship of the types of extreme value distributions.