arXiv subjects

Alois Panholzer

Publications and source records attributed to Alois Panholzer.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2023

On Card guessing games: limit law for one-time riffle shuffle

We consider a card guessing game with complete feedback. A ordered deck of n cards labeled 1 up to n is riffle-shuffled exactly one time. Then, the goal of the game is to maximize the number of correct guesses of the cards, where one after another a single card is drawn from the top, and shown to the guesser until no cards remain. Improving earlier results, we provide a limit law for the number of correct guesses. As a byproduct, we relate the number of correct guesses in this card guessing game to the number of correct guesses under a two-color card guessing game with complete feedback. Using this connection to two-color card guessing, we can also show a limiting distribution result for the first occurrence of a pure luck guess.

math.CO↗

arXiv2023

On Card guessing games: limit law for no feedback one-time riffle shuffle

We consider the following card guessing game with no feedback. An ordered deck of n cards labeled 1 up to n is riffle-shuffled exactly one time. Then, the goal of the game is to maximize the number of correct guesses of the cards. One after another a single card is drawn from the top, the guesser makes a guess without seeing the card and gets no response if the guess was correct or not. Building upon and improving earlier results, we provide a limit law for the number of correct guesses and also show convergence of the integer moments.

math.CO↗

arXiv2023

On Card guessing with two types of cards

We consider a card guessing strategy for a stack of cards with two different types of cards, say $m_1$ cards of type red (heart or diamond) and $m_2$ cards of type black (clubs or spades). Given a deck of $M=m_1+m_2$ cards, we propose a refined counting of the number of correct color guesses, when the guesser is provided with complete information, in other words, when the numbers $m_1$ and $m_2$ and the color of each drawn card are known. We decompose the correct guessed cards into three different types by taking into account the probability of making a correct guess, and provide joint distributional results for the underlying random variables as well as joint limit laws.

math.CO↗

arXiv2023

A note on the limit law of one-sided tree destruction

This short note serves an addendum to the article "Destruction of very simple trees" by Fill, Kapur and Panholzer (2004). Therein, the limit law of one-sided tree destruction with a toll function was determined by its moment sequence. We add an identification of the limit law, using recent results of Bertoin (2022), in terms of the local time of a noise reinforced Bessel process.

math.PR↗

arXiv2023

The Uncover Process for Random Labeled Trees

We consider the process of uncovering the vertices of a random labeled tree according to their labels. First, a labeled tree with $n$ vertices is generated uniformly at random. Thereafter, the vertices are uncovered one by one, in order of their labels. With each new vertex, all edges to previously uncovered vertices are uncovered as well. In this way, one obtains a growing sequence of forests. Three particular aspects of this process are studied in this work: first the number of edges, which we prove to converge to a stochastic process akin to a Brownian bridge after appropriate rescaling. Second, the connected component of a fixed vertex, for which different phases are identified and limiting distributions determined in each phase. Lastly, the largest connected component, for which we also observe a phase transition.

math.PR↗

arXiv2022

Analysis of some exactly solvable diminishing urn models

We study several exactly solvable Polya-Eggenberger urn models with a \emph{diminishing} character, namely, balls of a specified color, say $x$ are completely drawn after a finite number of draws. The main quantity of interest here is the number of balls left when balls of color $x$ are completely removed. We consider several diminishing urns studied previously in the literature such as the pills problem, the cannibal urns and the OK Corral problem, and derive exact and limiting distributions. Our approach is based on solving recurrences via generating functions and partial differential equations.

math.CO↗

arXiv2022

Tree evolution processes for bucket increasing trees

We provide a fundamental result for bucket increasing trees, which gives a complete characterization of all families of bucket increasing trees that can be generated by a tree evolution process. We also provide several equivalent properties, complementing and extending earlier results for ordinary increasing trees to bucket trees. Additionally, we state second order results for the number of descendants of label $j$, again extending earlier results in the literature.

math.CO↗

arXiv2020

Parking function varieties for combinatorial tree models

We study the enumeration problem for different kind of tree parking functions introduced recently, called tree parking functions, tree parking distributions, prime tree parking functions, and prime tree parking distributions, for rooted labelled trees of important combinatorial tree families including labelled ordered, unordered and binary trees. Using combinatorial decompositions of the underlying structures yields, after solving the resulting equations, implicit characterizations of suitable generating functions of the total number of such tree parking functions for trees of size $n$ and $n$ successful drivers, from which we obtain exact and asymptotic enumeration results. The approach can be extended to the general situation of tree parking functions for trees of size $n$ and $m<n$ drivers for which we are also able to characterize the generating functions solutions, which allow, by applying analytic combinatorics techniques, a study of the asymptotic behaviour of the total number of tree parking functions and distributions for $n \to \infty$ depending on the load factor $0 < α= \frac{m}{n} < 1$.

math.CO↗

arXiv2020

Runs in labelled trees and mappings

We generalize the concept of ascending and descending runs from permutations to rooted labelled trees and mappings, i.e., functions from the set $\{1, \dots, n\}$ into itself. A combinatorial decomposition of the corresponding functional digraph together with a generating functions approach allows us to perform a joint study of ascending and descending runs in labelled trees and mappings, respectively. From the given characterization of the respective generating functions we can deduce bivariate central limit theorems for these quantities. Furthermore, for ascending runs (or descending runs) we gain explicit enumeration formulae showing a connection to Stirling numbers of the second kind. We also give a bijective proof establishing this relation, and further state a bijection between mappings and labelled trees connecting the quantities in both structures.

math.CO↗

arXiv2020

On bucket increasing trees, clustered increasing trees and increasing diamonds

In this work we analyze bucket increasing tree families. We introduce two simple stochastic growth processes, generating random bucket increasing trees of size $n$, complementing the earlier result of Mahmoud and Smythe for bucket recursive trees. On the combinatorial side, we define multilabelled generalizations of the tree families $d$-ary increasing trees and generalized plane-oriented recursive trees. Additionally, we introduce a clustering process for ordinary increasing trees and relate it to bucket increasing trees. We discuss in detail the bucket size two and present a bijection between such bucket increasing tree families and certain families of graphs called increasing diamonds, providing an explanation for phenomena observed by Bodini et al.

math.CO↗

arXiv2018

A Note on Harmonic number identities, Stirling series and multiple zeta values

We study a general type of series and relate special cases of it to Stirling series, infinite series discussed by Choi and Hoffman, and also to special values of the Arakawa-Kaneko zeta function, complementing and generalizing earlier results. Moreover, we survey properties of certain truncated multiple zeta and zeta star values, pointing out their relation to finite sums of harmonic numbers. We also discuss the duality result of Hoffman, relating binomial sums and truncated multiple zeta star values.

math.NT↗

arXiv2018

Combinatorial analysis of growth models for series-parallel networks

We give combinatorial descriptions of two stochastic growth models for series-parallel networks introduced by Hosam Mahmoud by encoding the growth process via recursive tree structures. Using decompositions of the tree structures and applying analytic combinatorics methods allows a study of quantities in the corresponding series-parallel networks. For both models we obtain limiting distribution results for the degree of the poles and the length of a random source-to-sink path, and furthermore we get asymptotic results for the expected number of source-to-sink paths. Moreover, we introduce generalizations of these stochastic models by encoding the growth process of the networks via further important increasing tree structures and give an analysis of some parameters.

math.CO↗

arXiv2016

Combinatorial analysis of growth models for series-parallel networks

math.CO↗

arXiv2015

Parking functions for trees and mappings

We apply the concept of parking functions to rooted labelled trees and functional digraphs of mappings (i.e., functions $f : [n] \to [n]$) by considering the nodes as parking spaces and the directed edges as one-way streets: Each driver has a preferred parking space and starting with this node he follows the edges in the graph until he either finds a free parking space or all reachable parking spaces are occupied. If all drivers are successful we speak about a parking function for the tree or mapping. We transfer well-known characterizations of parking functions to trees and mappings. Especially, this yields bounds and characterizations of the extremal cases for the number of parking functions with $m$ drivers for a given tree $T$ of size $n$. Via analytic combinatorics techniques we study the total number $F_{n,m}$ and $M_{n,m}$ of tree and mapping parking functions, respectively, i.e., the number of pairs $(T,s)$ (or $(f,s)$), with $T$ a size-$n$ tree (or $f : [n] \to [n]$ an $n$-mapping) and $s \in [n]^{m}$ a parking function for $T$ (or for $f$) with $m$ drivers, yielding exact and asymptotic results. We describe the phase change behaviour appearing at $m=\frac{n}{2}$ for $F_{n,m}$ and $M_{n,m}$, respectively, and relate it to previously studied combinatorial contexts. Moreover, we give a bijective proof of the occurring relation $n F_{n,m} = M_{n,m}$.

math.CO↗

arXiv2014

Combinatorial families of multilabelled increasing trees and hook-length formulas

In this work we introduce and study various generalizations of the notion of increasingly labelled trees, where the label of a child node is always larger than the label of its parent node, to multilabelled tree families, where the nodes in the tree can get multiple labels. For all tree classes we show characterizations of suitable generating functions for the tree enumeration sequence via differential equations. Furthermore, for several combinatorial classes of multilabelled increasing tree families we present explicit enumeration results. We also present multilabelled increasing tree families of an elliptic nature, where the exponential generating function can be expressed in terms of the Weierstrass-p function or the lemniscate sine function. Furthermore, we show how to translate enumeration formulas for multilabelled increasing trees into hook-length formulas for trees and present a general "reverse engineering" method to discover hook-length formulas associated to such tree families.

math.CO↗

arXiv2014

Probabilistic analysis of the (1+1)-evolutionary algorithm

We give a detailed analysis of the cost used by the (1+1)-evolutionary algorithm. The problem has been approached in the evolutionary algorithm literature under various views, formulation and degree of rigor. Our asymptotic approximations for the mean and the variance represent the strongest of their kind. The approach we develop is also applicable to characterize the limit laws and is based on asymptotic resolution of the underlying recurrence. While most approximations have their simple formal nature, we elaborate on the delicate error analysis required for rigorous justifications.

math.PR↗

arXiv2014

On moment sequences and mixed Poisson distributions

In this article we survey properties of mixed Poisson distributions and probabilistic aspects of the Stirling transform: given a non-negative random variable $X$ with moment sequence $(μ_s)_{s\in\mathbb{N}}$ we determine a discrete random variable $Y$, whose moment sequence is given by the Stirling transform of the sequence $(μ_s)_{s\in\mathbb{N}}$, and identify the distribution as a mixed Poisson distribution. We discuss properties of this family of distributions and present a simple limit theorem based on expansions of factorial moments instead of power moments. Moreover, we present several examples of mixed Poisson distributions in the analysis of random discrete structures, unifying and extending earlier results. We also add several entirely new results: we analyse triangular urn models, where the initial configuration or the dimension of the urn is not fixed, but may depend on the discrete time $n$. We discuss the branching structure of plane recursive trees and its relation to table sizes in the Chinese restaurant process. Furthermore, we discuss root isolation procedures in Cayley-trees, a parameter in parking functions, zero contacts in lattice paths consisting of bridges, and a parameter related to cyclic points and trees in graphs of random mappings, all leading to mixed Poisson-Rayleigh distributions. Finally, we indicate how mixed Poisson distributions naturally arise in the critical composition scheme of Analytic Combinatorics.

math.CO↗

arXiv2013

Multiple isolation of nodes in recursive trees

We introduce the problem of isolating several nodes in random recursive trees by successively removing random edges, and study the number of random cuts that are necessary for the isolation. In particular, we analyze the number of random cuts required to isolate $\ell$ selected nodes in a size-n random recursive tree for three different selection rules, namely (i) isolating all of the nodes labelled 1,2,...,$\ell$ (thus nodes located close to the root of the tree), (ii) isolating all of the nodes labelled n+1-$\ell$,n+2-$\ell$,...,n (thus nodes located at the fringe of the tree), and (iii) isolating $\ell$ nodes in the tree, which are selected at random before starting the edge-removal procedure. Using a generating functions approach we determine for these selection rules the limiting distribution behavior of the number of cuts to isolate all selected nodes, for $\ell$ fixed and n tending to infinity.

math.CO↗