The inverse Gaussian distribution (also known as the Wald distribution) is
commonly used to model positive-valued data, particularly in contexts
involving first passage times and reliability analysis.
We recommend reading this documentation on pkgdown which renders math nicely.
https://pkg.mitchelloharawild.com/distributional/reference/dist_inverse_gaussian.html
In the following, let \(X\) be an Inverse Gaussian random variable with
parameters mean = \(\mu\) and shape = \(\lambda\).
Support: \((0, \infty)\)
Mean: \(\mu\)
Variance: \(\frac{\mu^3}{\lambda}\)
Probability density function (p.d.f):
$$
f(x) = \sqrt{\frac{\lambda}{2\pi x^3}}
\exp\left(-\frac{\lambda(x - \mu)^2}{2\mu^2 x}\right)
$$
Cumulative distribution function (c.d.f):
$$
F(x) = \Phi\left(\sqrt{\frac{\lambda}{x}}
\left(\frac{x}{\mu} - 1\right)\right) +
\exp\left(\frac{2\lambda}{\mu}\right)
\Phi\left(-\sqrt{\frac{\lambda}{x}}
\left(\frac{x}{\mu} + 1\right)\right)
$$
where \(\Phi\) is the standard normal c.d.f.
Moment generating function (m.g.f):
$$
E(e^{tX}) = \exp\left(\frac{\lambda}{\mu}
\left(1 - \sqrt{1 - \frac{2\mu^2 t}{\lambda}}\right)\right)
$$
for \(t < \frac{\lambda}{2\mu^2}\).
Skewness: \(3\sqrt{\frac{\mu}{\lambda}}\)
Excess Kurtosis: \(\frac{15\mu}{\lambda}\)
Quantiles: No closed-form expression, approximated numerically.