Related papers: The Distribution Function of the Longest Head Run
We study the length of $T$-contaminated runs of heads in the well-known coin tossing experiment. A $T$-contaminated run of heads is a sequence of consecutive heads interrupted by $T$ tails. For $T=1$ and $T=2$ we find the asymptotic…
We take a fresh look at the classical problem of runs in a sequence of i.i.d.\ coin tosses and derive a general identity/recursion which can be used to compute (joint) distributions of functionals of run types. This generalizes and unifies…
An unbiased coin is tossed $n$ times independently and sequentially. In this paper, we will study the length of the longest consecutive switches, and prove that the limit behaviors are similar to that of the length of the longest head-run.
The problem of the longest head run was introduced and solved by Abraham de Moivre in the second edition of his book Doctrine of Chances (de Moivre, 1738). The closed-form solution as a finite sum involving binomial coefficients was…
In the paper we study continuous time controlled Markov processes using discrete time controlled Markov processes. We consider long run functionals: average reward per unit time or long run risk sensitive functional. We also investigate…
A classical problem for Markov chains is determining their stationary (or steady-state) distribution. This problem has an equally classical solution based on eigenvectors and linear equation systems. However, this approach does not scale to…
We study the problem of learning a most biased coin among a set of coins by tossing the coins adaptively. The goal is to minimize the number of tosses until we identify a coin i* whose posterior probability of being most biased is at least…
In this paper we study the bicausal optimal transport problem for Markov chains, an optimal transport formulation suitable for stochastic processes which takes into consideration the accumulation of information as time evolves. Our analysis…
Binomial distributions capture the probabilities of `heads' outcomes when a (biased) coin is tossed multiple times. The coin may be identified with a distribution on the two-element set {0,1}, where the 1 outcome corresponds to `head'. One…
We study a game in which one keeps flipping a coin until a given finite string of heads and tails occurs. We find the expected number of coin flips to end the game when the ending string consists of at most four maximal runs of heads or…
In this work we present a detailed analysis using the Markov chain theory of some versions of the truel game in which three players try to eliminate each other in a series of one-to-one competitions, using the rules of the game. Besides…
Let S\subset (0,1). Given a known function f:S\to (0,1), we consider the problem of using independent tosses of a coin with probability of heads p (where p\in S is unknown) to simulate a coin with probability of heads f(p). We prove that if…
The distributions of the $m$-th longest runs of multivariate random sequences are considered. For random sequences made up of $k$ kinds of letters, the lengths of the runs are sorted in two ways to give two definitions of run length…
In a recent article in American Scientist, Theodore Hill described a coin-tossing game whose pay-off is the number of heads over the total number of throws. Suppose that at a given point during the game you have 5 heads and 3 tails, should…
Discrete-time discrete-state finite Markov chains are versatile mathematical models for a wide range of real-life stochastic processes. One of most common tasks in studies of Markov chains is computation of the stationary distribution.…
The maximum likelihood approach is adapted to the problem of estimation of drift and diffusion functions of stochastic processes from measured time series. We reconcile a previously devised iterative procedure [Kleinhans et al., Physics…
We consider a class of discrete time Markov chains with state space [0,1] and the following dynamics. At each time step, first the direction of the next transition is chosen at random with probability depending on the current location. Then…
The convergence, convergence rate and expected hitting time play fundamental roles in the analysis of randomised search heuristics. This paper presents a unified Markov chain approach to studying them. Using the approach, the sufficient and…
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…
This paper studies the trade-off between two different kinds of pure exploration: breadth versus depth. The most biased coin problem asks how many total coin flips are required to identify a "heavy" coin from an infinite bag containing both…