An overview of uniformity tests on the hypersphere

Abstract

When modeling directional data, that is, unit-norm multivariate vectors, a first natural question is to ask whether the directions are uniformly distributed or, on the contrary, whether there exist modes of variation significantly different from uniformity. We review in this article a reasonably exhaustive collection of uniformity tests for assessing uniformity in the hypersphere. Specifically, we review the classical circular-specific tests, the large class of Sobolev tests with its many notable particular cases, some recent alternative tests, and novel results in the high-dimensional low-sample size case. A reasonably comprehensive bibliography on the topic is provided.