Simulating a coin with irrational bias using rational arithmetic
Probability
2025-01-03 v6 Computation
Abstract
An algorithm is presented that, taking a sequence of independent Bernoulli random variables with parameter as inputs and using only rational arithmetic, simulates a Bernoulli random variable with possibly irrational parameter . It requires a series representation of with positive, rational terms, and a rational bound on its truncation error that converges to . The number of required inputs has an exponentially bounded tail, and its mean is at most . The number of arithmetic operations has a tail that can be bounded in terms of the sequence of truncation error bounds. The algorithm is applied to two specific values of , including Euler's constant, for which obtaining a simple simulation algorithm was an open problem.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2010.14901,
title = {Simulating a coin with irrational bias using rational arithmetic},
author = {Luis Mendo},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2010.14901},
year = {2025}
}
Comments
22 pages, 5 figures