diferencimin

Diferencimin is a theoretical construct used to quantify the difference between probability distributions or data-generating processes. It is described as a dimensionless family of metrics designed to generalize several established divergences and distance measures. The term appears in speculative or educational discussions rather than as a standard, widely adopted metric in formal literature.

In formal treatments, diferencimin is often framed via a class of test functions G and a normalization, in the spirit of integral probability metrics. For distributions P and Q on a common space, a common formulation is D_diff(P,Q) = sup_{g in G} |E_P[g(X)] - E_Q[g(X)]|. By choosing different function classes G, diferencimin can resemble known measures: with certain kernels, it aligns with discrepancies used in kernel methods; with other choices, it behaves like traditional distances such as total variation or Wasserstein-type metrics.

Properties and computation: diferencimin is typically non-negative and symmetric, with D_diff(P,P) = 0 under appropriate conditions. Its value reflects how distinguishable P and Q are with respect to the chosen function class G. In practice, it is estimated from finite samples, which makes the estimate sensitive to dimensionality and the selection of G. Its interpretation depends on that choice, so explicit specification of G and normalization is required.

Applications and context: as a flexible, unifying concept, diferencimin is discussed in contexts such as model evaluation, domain adaptation, hypothesis testing, and robust statistics. It is not standardized, so practitioners should clearly define the function class and normalizations used when reporting results. See also: total variation distance, Kullback–Leibler divergence, Jensen–Shannon divergence, Wasserstein distance, integral probability metrics.