| Abstract: | We analyze sequences of letters on a ring. Our objective is to determine the statistics of the occurrences of a set of r‐letter words when the sequence is chosen as a periodic Markov chain of order ≤ r ? 1. We first obtain a generating function for the associated probability distribution and then display its Poisson limit. For an i.i.d. letter sequence, correction terms to the Poisson limit are given. Finally, we indicate how a hidden Markov chain fits into this scheme. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. |
