stan-dev / stan-dev/math

[Request] Skew-t, multivariate skew-normal, multivariate skew-t

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Description

The skew-normal distribution is available in Stan.
The skew distributions are generally of the form:
2*f(x; theta)*F(z_x * alpha; theta_z)
where f is a pdf and F is a cdf.

Thus, the [log] skew-t can be implemented as:
log(2) + student_t_lpdf(x | nu, xi, scale) + student_t_lcdf(alpha * (x - xi)/scale | nu, 0, 1)

This is likely inefficient. Moreover, the multivariate skew-normal and skew-t are available. See:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1467-9868.00391/abstract multivariate skew-t
https://arxiv.org/abs/0911.2093 multivariate skew-normal
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047259X11001126?via%3Dihub centered parameterizations (and benefits of doing so) for the skew-normal and skew-t (you all currently use direct parameterization, which I don't think is an issue for bayes, but has some odd log-lik properties at around alpha=0, and thus could be an issue for optimization and the hessian).

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

No implementation file or test is identified. Start by locating the existing skew-normal distribution in Stan Math, then review the cited skew-t, multivariate skew-normal, and centered-parameterization references. Done means the requested univariate and multivariate distributions are implemented with appropriate parameterizations and validated behavior.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
cpp
Domain
data
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
25/100

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