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First contact distributions for spatial patterns: regularity and estimation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2016

Martin B. Hansen*
Affiliation:
Aalborg University
Adrian J. Baddeley*
Affiliation:
University of Western Australia
Richard D. Gill*
Affiliation:
University of Utrecht
*
Postal address: Department of Mathematical Sciences, Aalborg University, Fredrik Bajers Vej 7 E, DK 9220 Aalborg Ø, Denmark. Email address: mbh@math.auc.dk
∗∗ Postal address: Department of Mathematics, University of Western Australia, Nedlands WA 6907, Australia.
∗∗∗ Postal address: Mathematical Institute, University of Utrecht, Budapestlaan 6, 3584 CD Utrecht, The Netherlands.

Abstract

For applications in spatial statistics, an important property of a random set X in ℝk is its first contact distribution. This is the distribution of the distance from a fixed point 0 to the nearest point of X, where distance is measured using scalar dilations of a fixed test set B. We show that, if B is convex and contains a neighbourhood of 0, the first contact distribution function FB is absolutely continuous. We give two explicit representations of FB, and additional regularity conditions under which FB is continuously differentiable. A Kaplan-Meier estimator of FB is introduced and its basic properties examined.

Type
Stochastic Geometry and Statistical Applications
Copyright
Copyright © Applied Probability Trust 1999 

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