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Testing for spherical symmetry via the empirical characteristic function

Publication at Faculty of Mathematics and Physics |
2014

Abstract

Kolmogorov-Smirnov-type and Cramer-von Mises-type goodness-of-fit tests are proposed for the null hypothesis that the distribution of a random vector X is spherically symmetric. The test statistics utilize the fact that X has a spherical symmetric distribution if, and only if, the characteristic function of X is constant over surfaces of spheres centered at the origin.

The asymptotic null distribution of the test statistics as well as the consistency of the tests is investigated under general conditions. Since both the finite sample and the asymptotic null distribution depend on the unknown distribution of the Euclidean norm of X, a conditional Monte Carlo procedure is used to actually carry out the tests.

Results on the behavior of the test in finite-samples are included along with a real-data example.