On the truncated Pareto distribution with applications

Abstract

The Pareto probability distribution is widely applied in different fields such us finance, physics, hydrology, geology and astronomy. This note deals with an application of the Pareto distribution to astrophysics and more precisely to the statistical analysis of masses of stars and of diameters of asteroids. In particular a comparison between the usual Pareto distribution and its truncated version is presented. Finally, a possible physical mechanism that produces Pareto tails for the distribution of the masses of stars is presented. © Versita Warsaw and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2008.