TITLE: Generalized chi distribution
QUESTION [5 upvotes]: Let $v\in\mathbb{R}^n$ follow a multivariate Gaussian$(0,I)$ distribution, and $M\in\mathbb{R}^{n\times n}$ a matrix. Has the distribution of the Euclidean norm $\|Mv\|$ been studied?
I know that its square follows a generalized chi-square distribution, but this is a different case ("generalized chi"?).
Is there any hope to get expressions for $\|Mv\|$ when $v$ follows a non-Gaussian distribution with mean $0$ and variance $I$?

REPLY [2 votes]: For the case of elliptically contoured distributions (of which the Gaussian is a special case), the distribution of the norm of Mv is available in the literature (See for example 1 and 2)

M. Rangaswamy, D.D. Weiner, and A. Ozturk, "Non Gaussian Random Vector Identification Using Spherically Invariant Random Processes," Aerospace and Electronic Systems, IEEE Transactions on 29 (1), 111-124
Computer generation of correlated non-Gaussian radar clutter
M Rangaswamy, D Weiner, A Öztürk

Aerospace and Electronic Systems, IEEE Transactions on 31 (1), 106-116