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Laplace transform asymptotics and large deviation principles for longest success runs in Bernoulli trials

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2016

Takis Konstantopoulos*
Affiliation:
Uppsala University
Zhenxia Liu*
Affiliation:
Linköping University
Xiangfeng Yang*
Affiliation:
Linköping University
*
* Postal address: Department of Mathematics, Uppsala University, SE-751 06 Uppsala, Sweden. Email address: [email protected]
** Postal address: Department of Mathematics, Linköping University, SE-581 83 Linköping, Sweden.
** Postal address: Department of Mathematics, Linköping University, SE-581 83 Linköping, Sweden.

Abstract

The longest stretch L(n) of consecutive heads in n independent and identically distributed coin tosses is seen from the prism of large deviations. We first establish precise asymptotics for the moment generating function of L(n) and then show that there are precisely two large deviation principles, one concerning the behavior of the distribution of L(n) near its nominal value log1∕p n and one away from it. We discuss applications to inference and to logarithmic asymptotics of functionals of L(n).

Type
Research Papers
Copyright
Copyright © Applied Probability Trust 2016 

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