Suggested Applications

If applying polydispersion to parameters describing particle sizes, use the Lognormal or Schulz distributions.

If applying polydispersion to parameters describing interfacial thicknesses or angular orientations, use the Gaussian or Boltzmann distributions.

If applying polydispersion to parameters describing angles, use the Uniform distribution. Beware of using distributions that are always positive (eg, the Lognormal) because angles can be negative!

The array distribution allows a user-defined distribution to be applied.

Uniform Distribution

The Uniform Distribution is defined as

where $bar x$ ($x_text{mean}$ in the figure) is the mean of the distribution, $sigma$ is the half-width, and Norm is a normalization factor which is determined during the numerical calculation.

The polydispersity in sasmodels is given by

Uniform distribution.

The value $N_sigma$ is ignored for this distribution.

Rectangular Distribution

The Rectangular Distribution is defined as

where $bar x$ ($x_text{mean}$ in the figure) is the mean of the distribution, $w$ is the half-width, and Norm is a normalization factor which is determined during the numerical calculation.

Note that the standard deviation and the half width $w$ are different!

The standard deviation is

whilst the polydispersity in sasmodels is given by

Rectangular distribution.

Gaussian Distribution

The Gaussian Distribution is defined as

where $bar x$ ($x_text{mean}$ in the figure) is the mean of the distribution and Norm is a normalization factor which is determined during the numerical calculation.

The polydispersity in sasmodels is given by

Normal distribution.

Boltzmann Distribution

The Boltzmann Distribution is defined as

where $bar x$ ($x_text{mean}$ in the figure) is the mean of the distribution and Norm is a normalization factor which is determined during the numerical calculation.

The width is defined as

which is the inverse Boltzmann factor, where $k$ is the Boltzmann constant, $T$ the temperature in Kelvin and $E$ a characteristic energy per particle.

Boltzmann distribution.

Lognormal Distribution

The Lognormal Distribution describes a function of $x$ where $ln (x)$ has a normal distribution. The result is a distribution that is skewed towards larger values of $x$.

The Lognormal Distribution is defined as

where Norm is a normalization factor which will be determined during the numerical calculation, $mu=ln(x_text{med})$ and $x_text{med}$ is the median value of the lognormal distribution, but $sigma$ is a parameter describing the width of the underlying normal distribution.

$x_text{med}$ will be the value given for the respective size parameter in sasmodels, for example, radius=60.

The polydispersity in sasmodels is given by

The mean value of the distribution is given by $bar x = exp(mu+ sigma^2/2)$ and the peak value by $max x = exp(mu - sigma^2)$.

The variance (the square of the standard deviation) of the lognormal distribution is given by

Note that larger values of PD might need a larger number of points and $N_sigma$.

Lognormal distribution for PD=0.1.

For further information on the Lognormal distribution see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Log-normal_distribution and http://mathworld.wolfram.com/LogNormalDistribution.html

Schulz Distribution

The Schulz (sometimes written Schultz) distribution is similar to the Lognormal distribution, in that it is also skewed towards larger values of $x$, but which has computational advantages over the Lognormal distribution.

The Schulz distribution is defined as

where $bar x$ ($x_text{mean}$ in the figure) is the mean of the distribution, Norm is a normalization factor which is determined during the numerical calculation, and $z$ is a measure of the width of the distribution such that

where $p$ is the polydispersity in sasmodels given by

and $sigma$ is the RMS deviation from $bar x$.

Note that larger values of PD might need a larger number of points and $N_sigma$. For example, for PD=0.7 with radius=60 |Ang|, at least Npts>=160 and Nsigmas>=15 are required.

Schulz distribution.

For further information on the Schulz distribution see: M Kotlarchyk & S-H Chen, J Chem Phys, (1983), 79, 2461 and M Kotlarchyk, RB Stephens, and JS Huang, J Phys Chem, (1988), 92, 1533

Array Distribution

This user-definable distribution should be given as a simple ASCII text file where the array is defined by two columns of numbers: $x$ and $f(x)$. The $f(x)$ will be normalized to 1 during the computation.

Example of what an array distribution file should look like:

Only these array values are used computation, therefore the parameter value given for the model will have no affect, and will be ignored when computing the average. This means that any parameter with an array distribution will not be fitable.

User-defined Distributions

You can define your own distribution by creating a python file defining a Distribution object. The distribution is parameterized by center (which is always zero for orientation dispersity, or parameter value for size dispersity), sigma (which is the distribution width in degrees for orientation parameters, or center times width for size dispersity), and bounds lb and ub (which are the bounds on the possible values of the parameter given in the model definition).

For example, the following wraps the Laplace distribution from scipy stats:

import numpy as np
from scipy.stats import laplace
from sasmodels import weights
class Dispersion(weights.Dispersion):
    r"""
    Laplace distribution
    .. math::
        w(x) = e^{-\sigma |x - \mu|}
    """
    type = "laplace"
    default = dict(npts=35, width=0, nsigmas=3)  # default values
    def _weights(self, center, sigma, lb, ub):
        x = self._linspace(center, sigma, lb, ub)
        wx = laplace.pdf(x, center, sigma)
        return x, wx

To see that the distribution is correct use the following:

from numpy import inf
from matplotlib import pyplot as plt
from sasmodels import weights
# reload the user-defined weights
weights.load_weights()
x, wx = weights.get_weights('laplace', n=35, width=0.1, nsigmas=3, value=50,
                            limits=[0, inf], relative=True)
# plot the weights
plt.interactive(True)
plt.plot(x, wx, 'x')

Any python code can be used to define the distribution. The distribution parameters are available as self.npts, self.width and self.nsigmas. Try to follow the convention of gaussian width, npts and number of sigmas in the tail, but if your distribution requires more parameters you are free to interpret them as something else. In particular, npts allows you to trade accuracy against running time when evaluating your models. The self._linspace function uses self.npts and self.nsigmas to define the set of x values to use for the distribution (along with the center, sigma, lb, and ub passed as parameters). You can use an arbitrary set of x points.

Note about DLS polydispersity

Many commercial Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS) instruments produce a size polydispersity parameter, sometimes even given the symbol $p$! This parameter is defined as the relative standard deviation coefficient of variation of the size distribution and is NOT the same as the polydispersity parameters in the Lognormal and Schulz distributions above (though they all related) except when the DLS polydispersity parameter is <0.13.

where $nu$ is the variance of the distribution and $bar x$ is the mean value of $x$.

For more information see: S King, C Washington & R Heenan, Phys Chem Chem Phys, (2005), 7, 143

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