characteristic function

== English == === Noun === characteristic function (plural characteristic functions) (mathematical analysis) A function which is equal to 1 for all points in its domain which belong to a given set, and is equal to 0 for all points in the domain which do not belong to that given set. (mathematics, probability theory) A complex function completely defining the probability distribution of a real-valued random variable ==== Usage notes ==== The characteristic function of a set A is often represented as χA. ==== Synonyms ==== (function equal to 1 on elements of a given set): indicator function ==== Hypernyms ==== function ==== Hyponyms ==== point characteristic function ==== Translations ==== ==== See also ==== subset classifier