Let the vector random variable
follow an
-dimensional multivariate Normal distribution with mean vector
and
by
variance-covariance matrix
, then the probability density function,
, is given by
The lower tail probability is defined by:
The upper tail probability is defined by:
The central probability is defined by:
To evaluate the probability for
, the probability density function of
is considered as the product of the conditional probability of
given
and
and the marginal bivariate Normal distribution of
and
. The bivariate Normal probability can be evaluated as described in
g01haf and numerical integration is then used over the remaining
dimensions. In the case of
,
d01ajf
is used and for
d01fcf
is used.
To evaluate the probability for
a direct call to
g01eaf is made and for
calls to
g01haf are made.
If on entry
or
, explanatory error messages are output on the current error message unit (as defined by
x04aaf).
The accuracy should be as specified by
tol. When on exit
the approximate accuracy achieved is given in the error message. For the upper and lower tail probabilities the infinite limits are approximated by cut-off points for the
dimensions over which the numerical integration takes place; these cut-off points are given by
, where
is the inverse univariate Normal distribution function.
The time taken is related to the number of dimensions, the range over which the integration takes place (, for ) and the value of as well as the accuracy required. As the numerical integration does not take place over the last two dimensions speed may be improved by arranging so that the largest ranges of integration are for and .
This example reads in the mean and covariance matrix for a multivariate Normal distribution and computes and prints the associated central probability.