Elliptical affine shape distributions for real normed division algebras

Abstract

The statistical affine shape theory is set in this work in the context of real normed division algebras. The general densities apply for every field: real, complex, quaternion, octonion, and for any noncentral and non-isotropic elliptical distribution; then the separated published works about real and complex shape distributions can be obtained as corollaries by a suitable selection of the field parameter and univariate integrals involving the generator elliptical function. As a particular case, the complex normal affine density is derived and applied in brain magnetic resonance scans of normal and schizophrenic patients.