Unimodality

In mathematics, unimodality means possessing a unique mode. More generally, unimodality means there is only a single highest value, somehow defined, of some mathematical object.

In statistics, a unimodal probability distribution (or when referring to the distribution, a unimodal distribution) is a probability distribution which has a single mode. As the term "mode" has multiple meanings, so does the term "unimodal".

Strictly speaking, a mode of a discrete probability distribution is a value at which the probability mass function (pmf) takes its maximum value. In other words, it is a most likely value. A mode of a continuous probability distribution is a value at which the probability density function (pdf) attains its maximum value. Note that in both cases there can be more than one mode, since the maximum value of either the pmf or the pdf can be attained at more than one value.

If there is a single mode, the distribution function is called "unimodal". If it has more modes it is "bimodal" (2), "trimodal" (3), etc., or in general, "multimodal". Figure 1 illustrates normal distributions, which are unimodal. Other examples of unimodal distributions include Cauchy distribution, Student's t-distribution, chi-squared distribution and exponential distribution. Among discrete distributions, the binomial distribution and Poisson distribution can be seen as unimodal, though for some parameters they can have two adjacent values with the same probability.

Figure 2 illustrates a bimodal distribution.

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