Hostname: page-component-84b7d79bbc-c654p Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-31T02:16:55.849Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

A characterization of the geometric distribution

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 July 2016

M. Sreehari*
Affiliation:
M. S. University, Baroda
*
Postal address: Department of Statistics, Faculty of Science, M. S. University, Baroda, 390 002, India.

Abstract

Let X1, X2, …, Xn be independent identically distributed positive integer-valued random variables with order statistics X1:n, X2:n, …, Xn:n. We prove that if the random variable X2:nX1:n is independent of the events [X1:n = m] and [X1:n = k], for fixed k > m > 1, then the Xi's are geometric. This is related to a characterization problem raised by Arnold (1980).

Type
Short Communications
Copyright
Copyright © Applied Probability Trust 1983 

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.)

Footnotes

Research carried out while the author was at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.

References

Arnold, B. C. (1980) Two characterizations of the geometric distribution. J. Appl. Prob. 17, 570573.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sreehari, M. (1981) Two more similarities between the exponential and the geometric distributions. Unpublished.Google Scholar
Wong, W. Y. (1980) On set with “lack of memory” property and some applications to the characterization of geometric distribution. Bull. Malaysian Math. Soc. (2) 3, 2931.Google Scholar