High-Precision Framework for Expected Hitting Times Analysis in the Dice-Sum Process
Abstract
We study the expected number of rolls required for the cumulative sum of a fair six-sided die to first enter a prescribed target set . A one-variable dynamic-programming formulation is introduced that removes dependence on the roll count. Within this framework, the infinite process is truncated at a large cutoff and corrected by an analytically derived overshoot term that accounts for the rare event of exceeding before entering . Explicit bounds on this residual yield a strict two-sided estimate of the truncation error. The method is numerically efficient, requiring constant memory and linear time in the cutoff. For the perfect-square target set , all quantities are evaluated explicitly, yielding provably correct to 1,017 decimal places. This constitutes the most precise result known to date and establishes a general framework for high-accuracy computation of discrete hitting times.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2604.23133,
title = {High-Precision Framework for Expected Hitting Times Analysis in the Dice-Sum Process},
author = {Tipaluck Krityakierne and Thotsaporn Aek Thanatipanonda},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2604.23133},
year = {2026}
}
Comments
16 pages, 1 figure