Related papers: The Probability Distribution for Draws Until First…
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…
In frequently repeated matching scenarios, individuals may require diversification in their choices. Therefore, when faced with a set of potential outcomes, each individual may have an ideal lottery over outcomes that represents their…
Consider $2k-1$ voters, each of which has a preference ranking between $n$ given alternatives. An alternative $A$ is called a Condorcet winner, if it wins against every other alternative $B$ in majority voting (meaning that for every other…
Drawing (a multiset of) coloured balls from an urn is one of the most basic models in discrete probability theory. Three modes of drawing are commonly distinguished: multinomial (draw-replace), hypergeometric (draw-delete), and Polya…
We consider a game with two players, consisting of a number of rounds, where the first player to win $n$ rounds becomes the overall winner. Who wins each individual round is governed by a certain urn having two types of balls (type 1 and…
How many fair coin tosses to choose 1 of $n$ options with uniform probability? Although a probability problem, the solution is essentially number-theoretic, with special roles for Mersenne numbers, Fermat numbers, and the haupt exponent. We…
An urn containing specified numbers of balls of distinct ordered colors is considered. A multiple q-Polya urn model is introduced by assuming that the probability of q-drawing a ball of a specific color from the urn varies geometrically,…
Consider a finite undirected graph and place an urn with balls of two colours at each vertex. At every discrete time step, for each urn, a fixed number of balls are drawn from that same urn with probability $p$, and from a randomly chosen…
It is shown that an equiprobability hypothesis leads to a scenario in which it is possible to predict the outcome of a single toss of a fair coin with a success probability greater than 50%. We discuss whether this hypothesis might be…
We consider multicolor urn models with multiple drawings. An urn model is called linear if the conditional expected value of the urn composition at time $n$ is a linear function of the composition at time $n-1$. For four different sampling…
An urn contains black and red balls. Let $Z_n$ be the proportion of black balls at time $n$ and $0\leq L<U\leq 1$ random barriers. At each time $n$, a ball $b_n$ is drawn. If $b_n$ is black and $Z_{n-1}<U$, then $b_n$ is replaced together…
Consider a coin tossing experiment which consists of tossing one of two coins at a time, according to a renewal process. The first coin is fair and the second has probability $1/2 + \theta$, $\theta \in [-1/2,1/2]$, $\theta$ unknown but…
We complete the study of the model introduced in [11]. It is a two-color urn model with multiple drawing and random (non-balanced) time-dependent reinforcement matrix. The number of sampled balls at each time-step is random. We identify the…
Let $\xi$ be a random integer vector, having uniform distribution \[\mathbf{P} \{\xi = (i_1,i_2,...,i_n) = 1/n^n \} \ \hbox{for} \ 1 \leq i_1,i_2,...,i_n\leq n.\] A realization $(i_1,i_2,...,i_n)$ of $\xi$ is called \textit{good}, if its…
We collect, survey and develop methods of (one-dimensional) stochastic approximation in a framework that seems suitable to handle fairly broad generalizations of Polya urns. To show the applicability of the results we determine the limiting…
We consider the problem of estimating the probability of an observed string drawn i.i.d. from an unknown distribution. The key feature of our study is that the length of the observed string is assumed to be of the same order as the size of…
In order to study how well a finite group might be generated by repeated random multiplications, P. Diaconis suggested the following urn model. An urn contains some balls labeled by elements which generate a group G. Two are drawn at random…
When a thick cylindrical coin is tossed in the air and lands without bouncing on an inelastic substrate, it ends up on its face or its side. We account for the rigid body dynamics of spin and precession and calculate the probability…
We revisit the classical result in finite population sampling which states that in equally-likely "simple" random sampling the sample mean is more reliable when we do not replace after each draw. In this paper we investigate if and when the…
We study the space requirements of a sorting algorithm where only items that at the end will be adjacent are kept together. This is equivalent to the following combinatorial problem: Consider a string of fixed length n that starts as a…