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Probability theory or probability calculus is the branch of mathematics concerned with probability. Although there are several different probability interpretations , probability theory treats the concept in a rigorous mathematical manner by expressing it through a set of axioms .
[27] [28] Decades later Cramér referred to the 1930s as the "heroic period of mathematical probability theory". [28] In mathematics, the theory of stochastic processes is an important contribution to probability theory, [29] and continues to be an active topic of research for both theory and applications. [30] [31] [32]
A random process is a sequence of random variables whose outcomes do not follow a deterministic pattern, but follow an evolution described by probability distributions. These and other constructs are extremely useful in probability theory and the various applications of randomness .
In probability theory and related fields, a stochastic (/ s t ə ˈ k æ s t ɪ k /) or random process is a mathematical object usually defined as a family of random variables in a probability space, where the index of the family often has the interpretation of time.
The most common formulation of a branching process is that of the Galton–Watson process.Let Z n denote the state in period n (often interpreted as the size of generation n), and let X n,i be a random variable denoting the number of direct successors of member i in period n, where X n,i are independent and identically distributed random variables over all n ∈{ 0, 1, 2, ...} and i ∈ {1 ...
In probability theory and information theory, the mutual information (MI) of two random variables is a measure of the mutual dependence between the two variables. More specifically, it quantifies the " amount of information " (in units such as shannons ( bits ), nats or hartleys ) obtained about one random variable by observing the other random ...
The purely mathematical analysis of random variables is independent of such interpretational difficulties, and can be based upon a rigorous axiomatic setup. In the formal mathematical language of measure theory, a random variable is defined as a measurable function from a probability measure space (called the sample space) to a measurable space.
In probability theory, a random measure is a measure-valued random element. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] Random measures are for example used in the theory of random processes , where they form many important point processes such as Poisson point processes and Cox processes .