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Spherical Symmetry


A scalar function on R^n has spherical symmetry about a point c if it depends only on the Euclidean distance r=||x-c||. Equivalently, it is invariant under every rotation fixing c. A probability distribution is spherically symmetric when all such rotations leave its distribution unchanged.

For a differentiable spherically symmetric function f(x)=g(r) away from c, its gradient is radial,

 del f(x)=g^'(r)(x-c)/r.

See also

Radial Function, Rotation Group, Sphere

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References

Fang, K.-T.; Kotz, S.; and Ng, K. W. Symmetric Multivariate and Related Distributions. London, England: Chapman and Hall, 1990.

Cite this as:

Weisstein, Eric W. "Spherical Symmetry." From MathWorld--A Wolfram Resource. https://mathworld.wolfram.com/SphericalSymmetry.html

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