What does this $\infty$-like symbol mean?

Question

What does this symbol (the $\infty$-like symbol but without the right arc) mean? (Marked by red arrow below)

What does it say about the prior distribution?

Also, detexify is often a good place to start with identifying unknown symbols as the name is usually fairly self-explanatory — lioness99a, Feb 10 '20 at 14:55
@JMoravitz not entirely, there is still that part "What does it mean in this context - about the prior"? — Tomas, Feb 10 '20 at 15:18

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Feb 10 '20 at 14:53

1

It is often used for proportional to.

So, $y\propto x$ means that there is a constant $K$ such that $y=Kx$.

In $\LaTeX$ you can produce it with the macro \propto.

answered Feb 10 '20 at 14:53

thanks, so, what does it mean about the prior distribution? – Tomas Feb 10 '20 at 15:19

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 10 '20 at 14:56

1

"Proportional to"

$p(\sigma_{g_d}^2) \propto 1/\sigma_{g_d}^2$ means: there is a constant $C$ so that $p(\sigma_{g_d}^2) = C/\sigma_{g_d}^2$.

answered Feb 10 '20 at 14:56

GEdgar

thanks, so, what does it mean about the prior distribution? – Tomas Feb 10 '20 at 15:19

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 10 '20 at 14:53

0

\propto or \varpropto produce $\propto$ and $\varpropto$ respectively can often mean that the left value is proportional to the right value

answered Feb 10 '20 at 14:53

JMoravitz

3 Answers3