Sampling uniformly from a sphere - MathOverflow

Sampling uniformly from a sphere

2012-02-07T18:57:55Z

Let $B^{n} _p= ${$ (x_1, \dots, x_n) : |x_1|^p + \dots |x_n|^p = 1 $} be the unit ball in $\mathbb{R}^n$ in the $\ell^p$ norm.

If $X_1,\dots,X_n$ are iid $\exp(1)$ -distributed random variables, then $(X_1/D,\dots,X_n/D)$, where $D =X_1+ \dots + X_n $ is uniformly distributed in $B^{n}_1$.

If $X_1,\dots,X_n$ are iid normally distributed with mean 0, then $(X_1/D,\dots,X_n/D)$, where $D = (X_1^2+\dots+X_n^2)^{1/2}$, is uniformly distributed in $B^{n}_2$.

Is there a choice of $X_1,\dots , X_n$ iid such that $ ( X_1 / D, \dots, X_n/D)$, where $D = (|X_1|^p + \dots + |X_n|^p)^{1/p} $ is uniformly distributed in $B^{n} _p$ for arbitrary $p$?

I would be happy with any sensible common generalization of the two statements above. I have no particular reason to believe there is such a generalization - I'm just hoping that two so similar and neat examples have similarly nice generalizations.

Answer by R Hahn for Sampling uniformly from a sphere

2012-02-07T21:34:18Z

The result you want, I think, is in Stationarity, Isotropy and Sphericity in $l_p^*$. It is behind a pay-wall, but the form of the distribution is stated in the abstract.

Answer by Mark Meckes for Sampling uniformly from a sphere

2012-02-08T17:31:43Z

If by uniform measure you mean $(n-1)$-dimensional Hausdorff measure on the sphere, the answer is no. As a consequence of the results of this paper by Barthe, Csörnyei, and Naor, under mild regularity assumptions the only measure on the boundary of any convex body which can be generated in this way is the "cone measure" on the $\ell_p$ sphere for $1 \le p < \infty$, which coincides with uniform measure only for $p=1,2$.