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Alternative combinatorial sum for the probability mass function of the Poisson distribution of order $k$

Probability 2023-10-16 v1 Combinatorics

Abstract

Kostadinova and Minkova published an expression for the probability mass function (pmf) of the Poisson distribution of order kk, as a combinatorial sum (Pliska Stud. Math. Bulgar. 22, 117128 (2013)\mathit{Pliska~Stud.~Math.~Bulgar.}\ {\bf 22},\ 117-128\ (2013)). Inspired by their elegant solution, this note presents an alternative combinatorial sum for the pmf of the Poisson distribution of order kk. The terms are partitioned into blocks of length kk (as opposed to k+1k+1 by Kostadinova and Minkova). The new sum offers an advantage in the following sense. For n[rk+1,(r+1)k]n\in[rk+1,(r+1)k], the lowest power of λ\lambda in the pmf is λr+1\lambda^{r+1}. Hence the lower limit of summation can be increased, to avoid needlessly calculating terms which cancel to identically zero.

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Cite

@article{arxiv.2310.08615,
  title  = {Alternative combinatorial sum for the probability mass function of the Poisson distribution of order $k$},
  author = {S. R. Mane},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2310.08615},
  year   = {2023}
}

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6 pages