18.27 The Poisson Distribution

Random: unsigned int gsl_ran_poisson (const gsl_rng * r, double mu)

This function returns a random integer from the Poisson distribution with mean mu. The probability distribution for Poisson variates is,

p(k) = {\mu^k \over k!} \exp(-\mu)

for k >= 0.

Function: double gsl_ran_poisson_pdf (unsigned int k, double mu)

This function computes the probability p(k) of obtaining k from a Poisson distribution with mean mu, using the formula given above.