Model-based clustering and classification using mixtures of multivariate skewed power exponential distributions

Abstract: Families of mixtures of multivariate power exponential (MPE) distributions have been previously introduced and shown to be competitive for cluster analysis in comparison to other elliptical mixtures including mixtures of Gaussian distributions. Herein, we propose a family of mixtures of multivariate skewed power exponential distributions to combine the flexibility of the MPE distribution with the ability to model skewness. These mixtures are more robust to variations from normality and can account for skewness, varying tail weight, and peakedness of data. A generalized expectation-maximization approach combining minorization-maximization and optimization based on accelerated line search algorithms on the Stiefel manifold is used for parameter estimation. These mixtures are implemented both in the model-based clustering and classification frameworks. Both simulated and benchmark data are used for illustration and comparison to other mixture families.