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The stationary distribution of an interesting Markov chain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 July 2016

W. J. Hendricks*
Affiliation:
Case Western Reserve University

Abstract

In a single-shelf library of N books we suppose that books are returned by placing them at one end of the shelf. The probability of selecting each book is assumed to be known, and only one book is removed at a time. The N! arrangements of the books are considered as states of an ergodic Markov chain for which we find the stationary distribution.

Type
Short Communications
Copyright
Copyright © Applied Probability Trust 1972 

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References

Feller, W. (1957) An Introduction to Probability Theory and its Applications. Vol. 1, Second edition. John Wiley and Sons, New York.Google Scholar