Definition of degenerate multivariate normal distribution I am reading some notes and having some trouble with the definition of multivariate normal distribution when the covariance matrix is not invertible. I will state my understanding below, and hopefully someone can chime in with some words of wisdom.
Suppose $\Sigma$ is an $n\times n$ matrix. When $\Sigma$ is invertible, we say that a random vector $X$ has multivariate normal distribution with mean $0$ and covariance $\Sigma$ if it has density given by
$f_X(x)=\frac{1}{(2\pi)^{n/2}(\det{\Sigma})^{1/2}}\exp(-\frac{1}{2}x^T\Sigma^{-1}x)$
Now, when $\Sigma$ is not invertible, then clearly the above density function is not defined. The notes mention the Cramer-Wold device can be used to define $N(0,\Sigma)$ in this case, and moves on without explicitly doing so. 
Could somebody please give a simplistic explanation/definition of $N(0,\Sigma)$ when $\Sigma$ is not invertible?
Remark: For the univariate normal distribution, I understand that $N(0,0)$ corresponds to the degenerate distribution $\delta_0$. By degenerate distribution, I mean it is $0$ with probability $1$. I can not see how this would work in higher dimensions though! 
 A: When $n$ zero-mean random variables $X_1,X_2, \ldots, X_n$ have a multivariate normal distribution with singular covariance matrix $\Sigma$, then, as your book says, they don't have an $n$-variate normal density function and so one cannot use the formula that you state.  In this case, it is the case that one can find $m < n$ independent standard normal random variables $Y_1, Y_2, \ldots, Y_m$and a $n\times m$ matrix $A$ such that $$\mathbf X = (X_1,X_2, \ldots, X_n)^T = A\mathbf Y ~\text{where}~ \mathbf Y = (Y_1, Y_2, \ldots, Y_m)^T$$
and $\Sigma$ equals $AA^T$. Questions about the probabilistic behavior of $\mathbf X$ can be translated into questions about the probabilistic behavior of $\mathbf Y$ and answered there.
For example, if $X_1, X_2$ have singular covariance matrix, then is must be that $X_1 = \sigma_1 Y$ and $X_2 = \sigma_2 Y$ where $Y\sim N(0,1)$ and a question such as "What is the value of $P(X_1^2+X_2^2 < 1)$?" is seen to be asking for the value of $P((\sigma_1^2+\sigma_2^2)Y < 1)$.
A: An important property of the multivariate normal distribution, is that if $X$ has a n-dimensional normal distribution, then $BX+c$ has a m-dimensional normal distribution for any $m\times n$ matrix $B$ and $m$ dimensional column vector $c$  . 
It can be shown that 
$$\mathbb{E}[BX + c] = B\mathbb{E}[X]+c \quad \text{ and } \quad \text{Var}(BX+c)=B\text{Var}(X)B^T$$
Using this we can characterize the multivariate normal distribution as an affine transformation of independent $N(0,1)$ variables. 
The construction goes as follows: Suppose we want to construct a normal distribution with mean vector $\mu$ and covariance matrix $\Sigma$. Consider $n$ independent $N(0,1)$ variables, then $(X_1,...,X_n)$ has a n-dimensional normal distribution with mean $0$ and covariance matirx $I$ (the identity matrix). Consider the transformation 
$$Y=\Sigma^{1/2}X + \mu,$$
where $\Sigma^{1/2}$ is the symmetric square root of $\Sigma$ (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Square_root_of_a_matrix#By_diagonalization)
Y has a n-dimensional normal distribution with mean $\mu$ and covariance matrix
$$Var(Y) = \Sigma^{1/2} I (\Sigma^{1/2})^T=\Sigma.$$
An interesting consequence is, that if $\Sigma$ has rank $k$, then $Y$ is concentrated on a $k$ dimensional affine subspace of $\mathbb{R}^n$ and if $k<n$ then $Y$ is concentrated on a set of Lebesgue measure $0$, which means that a density cannot exist. 
