THE GENERAL BIRTHDAY PROBLEM

Authors
HOLST L
Citation
L. Holst, THE GENERAL BIRTHDAY PROBLEM, Random structures & algorithms, 6(2-3), 1995, pp. 201-208
Citations number
14
Categorie Soggetti
Mathematics,Mathematics,Mathematics,"Computer Science Software Graphycs Programming
Journal title
Random structures & algorithms → ACNP
ISSN journal
10429832
Volume
6
Issue
2-3
Year of publication
1995
Pages
201 - 208
Database
ISI
SICI code
1042-9832(1995)6:2-3<201:TGBP>2.0.ZU;2-C
Abstract
The general birthday problem with unlike birth probabilities and the w aiting time N until c people with the same birthday have been obtained is studied in this article. It is shown that N is stochastically larg est when the birth probabilities are equal. By embedding in Poisson pr ocesses it is shown how the moments of N can be expressed in moments o f the minimum of gamma random variables. (C) 1995 John Wiley & Sons, I nc.