Theory of Barnes Beta Distributions

A new family of probability distributions $\beta_{M, N},$ $M=0\cdots N,$ $N\in\mathbb{N}$ on the unit interval $(0, 1]$ is defined by the Mellin transform. The Mellin transform of $\beta_{M, N}$ is characterized in terms of products of ratios of Barnes multiple gamma functions, shown to satisfy a functional equation, and a Shintani-type infinite product factorization. The distribution $\log\beta_{M, N}$ is infinitely divisible. If $M<N,$ $-\log\beta_{M, N}$ is compound Poisson, if $M=N,$ $\log\beta_{M, N}$ is absolutely continuous. The integral moments of $\beta_{M, N}$ are expressed as Selberg-type products of multiple gamma functions. The asymptotic behavior of the Mellin transform is derived and used to prove an inequality involving multiple gamma functions and establish positivity of a class of alternating power series. For application, the Selberg integral is interpreted probabilistically as a transformation of $\beta_{1, 1}$ into a product of $\beta^{-1}_{2, 2}s.$Comment: 15 pages, published version (removed Th. 4.5 and Section 5, updated references

Binomial Identities and Moments of Random Variables

We give unified simple proofs of some binomial identities, by using an elementary identity on moments of random variables