Marine Science Faculty Publications
Upper-Truncated Power Law Distributions
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2001
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.1142/S0218348X01000658
Abstract
Power law cumulative number-size distributions are widely used to describe the scaling properties of data sets and to establish scale invariance. We derive the relationships between the scaling exponents of non-cumulative and cumulative number-size distributions for linearly binned and logarithmically binned data. Cumulative number-size distributions for data sets of many natural phenomena exhibit a "fall-off" from a power law at the largest object sizes. Previous work has often either ignored the fall-off region or described this region with a different function. We demonstrate that when a data set is abruptly truncated at large object size, fall-off from a power law is expected for the cumulative distribution. Functions to describe this fall-off are derived for both linearly and logarithmically binned data. These functions lead to a generalized function, the upper-truncated power law, that is independent of binning method. Fitting the upper-truncated power law to a cumulative number-size distribution determines the parameters of the power law, thus providing the scaling exponent of the data. Unlike previous approaches that employ alternate functions to describe the fall-off region, an upper-truncated power law describes the data set, including the fall-off, with a single function.
Was this content written or created while at USF?
Yes
Citation / Publisher Attribution
Fractals, v. 9, issue 2, p. 209-222
Scholar Commons Citation
Burroughs, Stephen M. and Tebbens, Sarah F., "Upper-Truncated Power Law Distributions" (2001). Marine Science Faculty Publications. 2569.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/msc_facpub/2569
