Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T13:39:39.647Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

First-passage times for the partial sums of a sequence of geometric distributions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 July 2016

A. J. Woods*
Affiliation:
University of Reading

Abstract

It is shown here that questions about the probability distributions of the partial sums of a sequence of geometric distributions, all with different parameters, can be answered by considering the transition probabilities of a homogeneous Markov chain. The result is applied to the embedded random walk of an epidemic process.

Type
Short Communications
Copyright
Copyright © Applied Probability Trust 1982 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Downton, F. (1967) Epidemics with carriers: a note on a paper of Dietz. J. Appl. Prob. 4, 264270.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weiss, G. H. (1965) On the spread of epidemics by carriers. Biometrics 21, 481490.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed