hermite.expansion: Calcululation of Hermite expansion for detection function likelihoods.
Description
Computes the Hermite expansion terms used in the likelihood of a distance analysis. More generally, will compute
a Hermite expansion of any numeric vector.
Usage
hermite.expansion(x, expansions)
Arguments
x
In a distance analysis, x is a numeric vector containing the proportion of
a strip transect's half-width at which a group of individuals was sighted. If \(w\) is the
strip transect half-width or maximum sighting distance, and \(d\) is the perpendicular
off-transect distance to a sighted group (\(d\leq w\)),
x is usually \(d/w\). More generally, x is a vector of numeric values.
expansions
A scaler specifying the number of expansion terms to compute. Must be one of the integers 1, 2, 3, or 4.
Value
A matrix of size length(x) X expansions. The columns of this matrix
are the Hermite polynomial expansions of x.
Column 1 is the first expansion term of x, column
2 is the second expansion term of x, and so on up to expansions.
Details
There are, in general, several expansions that can be called Hermite. The Hermite
expansion used here is: