Dispersion may refer to:

Economics and finance

  • Dispersion (finance), a measure for the statistical distribution of portfolio returns
  • Price dispersion, a variation in prices across sellers of the same item
  • Wage dispersion, the amount of variation in wages encountered in an economy
  • Dispersed knowledge, notion that any one person is unable to perceive all economic forces

Science and mathematics

Mathematics

  • Statistical dispersion, a quantifiable variation of measurements of differing members of a population
  • Index of dispersion, a normalized measure of the dispersion of a probability distribution
  • Dispersion point, a point in a topological space the removal of which leaves the space highly disconnected

Physics

  • The dependence of wave velocity on frequency or wavelength:
  • Dispersion (optics), for light waves
  • Dispersion (water waves), for water waves
  • Acoustic dispersion, for sound waves
  • Dispersion relation, the mathematical description of dispersion in a system
  • Modal dispersion, spreading of signals in multimode fibers and waveguides by a distortion mechanism
  • Polarization mode dispersion, a form of modal dispersion
  • Dielectric dispersion, the dependence of the permittivity of a dielectric material on the frequency of an applied electric field
  • Dispersion measure, the dispersion of radio signals from pulsars and fast radio bursts
  • Dispersive mass transfer, in fluid dynamics, the spreading of mass from areas of high to low concentration
  • Atmospheric dispersion modeling, mathematical simulation of how air pollutants disperse in the ambient atmosphere
  • London dispersion force, an instantaneous induced dipole-induced dipole
  • Dispersed particle resistance, a measured parameter to characterize battery active materials

Other sciences

  • Biological dispersal, the distribution of animals, spores, fruits and their seeds, etc.
  • Dispersion (chemistry), a system in which particles are dispersed in a continuous phase of a different composition
  • Dispersion (geology), a process whereby sodic soil disperses when exposed to water
  • Dispersion (materials science), the fraction of atoms of a material exposed to the surface
  • Dispersion polymerization, a polymerization process
  • Velocity dispersion, the statistical variation of velocities about the mean velocity for a group of astronomical objects

Other uses

  • , Jewish communities who lived amongst the gentiles in the first century CE
  • Dispersion (album), the second album by High Rise
  • Dispersion Technology, a scientific instrument manufacturer located in Bedford Hills, New York

See also

  • Dispersal (disambiguation)
  • Dispersive (disambiguation)
  • Dispersity, a measure of the heterogeneity of sizes of molecules or particles in a mixture