Numbers of Success-Runs of Specified Length Until Certain Stopping Time Rules and Generalized Binomial Distributions of Order k

A new distribution called a generalized binomial distribution of order k is defined and some properties are investigated. A class of enumeration schemes for success-runs of a specified length including non-overlapping and overlapping enumeration schemes is rigorously studied. For each nonnegative integer less than the specified length of the runs, an enumeration scheme called -overlapping way of counting is defined. Let k and be positive integers satisfying < k. Based on independent Bernoulli trials, it is shown that the number of (– 1)-overlapping occurrences of success-run of length k until the n-th overlapping occurrence of success-run of length follows the generalized binomial distribution of order (k–). In particular, the number of non-overlapping occurrences of success-run of length k until the n-th success follows the generalized binomial distribution of order (k– 1). The distribution remains unchanged essentially even if the underlying sequence is changed from the sequence of independent Bernoulli trials to a dependent sequence such as higher order Markov dependent trials. A practical example of the generalized binomial distribution of order k is also given.