Folded-t and half-t distributions
# Folded-t and half-t distributions

In statistics, the folded-t and half-t distributions are derived from Student's t-distribution by taking the absolute values of variates. This is analogous to the folded-normal and the half-normal statistical distributions being derived from the normal distribution.

## Definitions

The folded non-standardized t distribution is the distribution of the absolute value of the non-standardized t distribution with $\nu$ degrees of freedom; its probability density function is given by:

    $g\left(x\right)\;=\;{\frac {\Gamma \left({\frac {\nu +1}{2}}\right)}{\Gamma \left({\frac {\nu }{2}}\right){\sqrt {\nu \pi \sigma ^{2}}}}}\left\lbrace \left[1+{\frac {1}{\nu }}{\frac {\left(x-\mu \right)^{2}}{\sigma ^{2}}}\right]^{-{\frac {\nu +1}{2}}}+\left[1+{\frac {1}{\nu }}{\frac {\left(x+\mu \right)^{2}}{\sigma ^{2}}}\right]^{-{\frac {\nu +1}{2}}}\right\rbrace \qquad ({\mbox{for}}\quad x\geq 0)$.

The half-t distribution results as the special case of $\mu =0$, and the standardized version as the special case of $\sigma =1$.

If $\mu =0$, the folded-t distribution reduces to the special case of the half-t distribution. Its probability density function then simplifies to

    $g\left(x\right)\;=\;{\frac {2\;\Gamma \left({\frac {\nu +1}{2}}\right)}{\Gamma \left({\frac {\nu }{2}}\right){\sqrt {\nu \pi \sigma ^{2}}}}}\left(1+{\frac {1}{\nu }}{\frac {x^{2}}{\sigma ^{2}}}\right)^{-{\frac {\nu +1}{2}}}\qquad ({\mbox{for}}\quad x\geq 0)$.

The half-t distribution's first two moments (expectation and variance) are given by:

    $\operatorname {E} [X]\;=\;2\sigma {\sqrt {\frac {\nu }{\pi }}}{\frac {\Gamma ({\frac {\nu +1}{2}})}{\Gamma ({\frac {\nu }{2}})\,(\nu -1)}}\qquad {\mbox{for}}\quad \nu >1$,

and

    $\operatorname {Var} (X)\;=\;\sigma ^{2}\left({\frac {\nu }{\nu -2}}-{\frac {4\nu }{\pi (\nu -1)^{2}}}\left({\frac {\Gamma ({\frac {\nu +1}{2}})}{\Gamma ({\frac {\nu }{2}})}}\right)^{2}\right)\qquad {\mbox{for}}\quad \nu >2$.

## Relation to other distributions

Folded-t and half-t generalize the folded normal and half-normal distributions by allowing for finite degrees-of-freedom (the normal analogues constitute the limiting cases of infinite degrees-of-freedom). Since the Cauchy distribution constitutes the special case of a Student-t distribution with one degree of freedom, the families of folded and half-t distributions include the folded Cauchy distribution and half-Cauchy distributions for $\nu =1$.

