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The sequential sampling of populations with unequal probabilities and with replacement in a closed population is a recurrent problem in ecology and evolution. Many of these questions can be reformulated as urn problems, often as special…

In the classical coupon collector's problem, every box of breakfast cereal contains one coupon from a collection of n distinct coupons, each equally likely to appear. The goal is to find the expected number of boxes a player needs to…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2023-02-22 Tipaluck Krityakierne , Thotsaporn Aek Thanatipanonda

We initiate the study of the Careless Coupon Collector's Problem (CCCP), a novel variation of the classical coupon collector, that we envision as a model for information systems such as web crawlers, dynamic caches, and fault-resilient…

Discrete Mathematics · Computer Science 2026-02-25 Emilio Cruciani , Aditi Dudeja

We address a conjecture of Schilling concerning the optimality of the uniform distribution in the generalized Coupon Collector's Problem (CCP) where, in each round, a subset (package) of $s$ coupons is drawn from a total of $n$ distinct…

Probability · Mathematics 2026-05-12 Daniel Berend , Tomer Sher

The following variant of the collector's problem has attracted considerable attention relatively recently (see, e.g., N. Pintacuda 1980, D. Foata H. Guo-Niu and B. Lass 2001, D. Foata and D. Zeilberger 2003, I. Adler, S. Oren and S. Ross…

Probability · Mathematics 2014-12-16 Aristides V. Doumas , Vassilis G. Papanicolaou

This paper gives an algebraic proof of the correctness of Von Schelling formula for the probability of the coupon collector problem waiting time for non-uniform distributions and partial collections. It introduces a theorem on sums of…

Discrete Mathematics · Computer Science 2017-03-07 Christian Berthet

We consider the following variant of the classic collector's problem: The family of coupon probabilities is the mixing of two subfamilies one of which is the \textit{uniform} family, while the other belongs to the well known \textit{Zipf…

Probability · Mathematics 2019-04-23 Aristides V. Doumas , Vassilis G. Papanicolaou

In this paper the coupon collector's problem with group drawings is studied. Assume there are $ n $ different coupons. At each time precisely $ s $ of the $ n $ coupons are drawn, where all choices are supposed to have equal probability.…

Probability · Mathematics 2022-02-16 Carina Betken , Christoph Thäle

The double Dixie cup problem of D.J. Newman and L. Shepp is a well-known variant of the coupon collector problem, where the object of study is the number of coupons that a collector has to buy in order to complete m sets of all N existing…

Probability · Mathematics 2025-10-31 Aristides V. Doumas

A popular variant of the collector's problem is the following: Assume there are $N$ different types of coupons with equal occurring probabilities. There is one main collector who collects coupons. When she gets a "double," she gives it to…

Probability · Mathematics 2020-05-13 Vassilis G. Papanicolaou , Aristides V. Doumas

The "double Dixie cup problem" of D.J. Newman and L. Shepp (1960) is a well-known variant of the coupon collector's problem, where the object of study is the number $T_{m}(N)$ of coupons that a collector has to buy in order to complete $m$…

Probability · Mathematics 2015-11-06 Aristides V. Doumas , Vassilis G. Papanicolaou

Based upon inequalities on Subset Probabilities, proofs of several conjectures on the Generalized Coupon Collector Problem (i.e. CCP with unequal popularity) are presented. Then we derive a very simple asymptotic relation between the…

Discrete Mathematics · Computer Science 2017-06-19 Christian Berthet

To approximate the trajectories of a stochastic process by the solution of some differential equation is widely used in the fields of probability, computer science and combinatorics. In this paper, the convergence of coupon collecting…

Probability · Mathematics 2019-12-06 Anshui Li , Yong Chen

Computer-based tests with randomly generated questions allow a large number of different tests to be generated. Given a fixed number of alternatives for each question, the number of tests that need to be generated before all possible…

Probability · Mathematics 2010-03-04 Charles M. Goldie , Rosie Cornish , Carol L. Robinson

Given a discrete distribution, an interesting problem is to determine the minimum size of a random sample drawn from this distribution, in order to observe a given number of different records. This problem is related with many applied…

Probability · Mathematics 2012-09-21 Marco Ferrante , Nadia Frigo

The embedding problem of Markov transition matrices into continuous-time Markov semigroups is a classic problem that regained a lot of impetus and activities in recent years. We consider it here for the following generalisation of the…

Probability · Mathematics 2026-01-27 Ellen Baake , Michael Baake

We extend the Coupon Collector's Problem (CCP) and present a novel generalized model, referred as the k-LCCP problem, where one is interested in recovering a bipartite graph with a perfect matching, which represents the coupons and their…

Discrete Mathematics · Computer Science 2025-02-06 Shoham Shimon Berrebi , Eitan Yaakobi , Zohar Yakhini , Daniella Bar-Lev

Let $N_n=\{1,2,...,n\}$. Elements are drawn from the set $N_n$ with replacement, assuming that each element has probability $1/n$ of being drawn. We determine the limiting distributions for the waiting time until the given portion of pairs…

Statistics Theory · Mathematics 2008-12-18 Pavle Mladenović

The paper introduces a modified version of the classical Coupon Collector's Problem entailing exchanges and cooperation between multiple players. Results of the development show that, within a proper Markov framework, the complexity of the…

Discrete Mathematics · Computer Science 2009-12-15 R. Rovatti , C. Passerini , G. Mazzini

Despite the coupon collector's problem has simple probabilistic solution using inclusion/exclusion principle \cite{PolyaUrn}, starting from a particular type of recurrence differential equation it is used an analytic approach to recover…

Probability · Mathematics 2016-09-06 Andrea Monsellato