Fitting the Student-t Distribution to Grouped Data, With Application to a Particle Scattering Experiment

Abstract

Experimental data are presented for which the Student-t distribution provides a plausible model. A grouped maximum likelihood estimation approach is developed. A data set is presented that is accurately modeled by a distribution with tails heavier than a Cauchy distribution.

KEY WORDS:

• Pearson Type VII distribution
• Multinomial
• Cauchy distribution
• Nelder–Mead simplex search
• Newton–Raphson
• Accelerator physics