Waiting time problems for a sequence of discrete random variables

Abstract

Let X1, X2,... be a sequence of nonnegative integer valued random variables.For each nonnegative integer i, we are given a positive integer ki. For every i = 0, 1, 2,..., Ei denotes the event that a run of i of length ki occurs in the sequence X1, X2,.... For the sequence X1, X2,..., the generalized pgf's of the distributions of the waiting times until the r-th occurrence among the events % MathType!MTEF!2!1!+-% feaafeart1ev1aaatCvAUfeBSjuyZL2yd9gzLbvyNv2CaerbuLwBLn% hiov2DGi1BTfMBaeXafv3ySLgzGmvETj2BSbqefm0B1jxALjhiov2D% aebbfv3ySLgzGueE0jxyaibaiiYdd9qrFfea0dXdf9vqai-hEir8Ve% ea0de9qq-hbrpepeea0db9q8as0-LqLs-Jirpepeea0-as0Fb9pgea% 0lrP0xe9Fve9Fve9qapdbaqaaeGacaGaaiaabeqaamaabaabcaGcba% WaaiWabeaacaWGfbWaaSbaaSqaaiaadMgaaeqaaaGccaGL7bGaayzF% aaWaa0baaSqaaiaadMgacqGH9aqpcaaIWaaabaGaeyOhIukaaaaa!43D8!\[\left\{ {E_i } \right\}_{i = 0}^\infty\]are obtained. Though our situations are general, the results are very simple. For the special cases that X's are i.i.d. and {0, 1}-valued, the corresponding results are consistent with previously published results.