Scaling behavior for the median of the Poisson distribution of order $k$

Abstract

This note analyzes properties of the median $\nu$ of the Poisson distribution of order $k$. Given a value for the median in the interval $\nu\in[1,k]$, an equation to calculate the corresponding value of the rate parameter $\lambda$ is derived. Numerical evidence is presented that the value of the median exhibits many scaling properties, which permit one to formulate parameterizations of the value of the median in various domains of the parameter space $(k,\lambda)$. In all cases, the relevant quantities to calculate are $\nu/k$ and $\mu/k$, where $\mu$ is the mean.