Probabilistic $(m,n)$-Parking Functions

Fuente: arXiv
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Autores principales: Harris, Pamela E., Ribeiro, Rodrigo, Yin, Mei
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2025
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author Harris, Pamela E.
Ribeiro, Rodrigo
Yin, Mei
author_facet Harris, Pamela E.
Ribeiro, Rodrigo
Yin, Mei
contents In this article, we establish new results on the probabilistic parking model (introduced by Durmíc, Han, Harris, Ribeiro, and Yin) with $m$ cars and $n$ parking spots and probability parameter $p\in[0,1]$. For any $ m \leq n$ and $p \in [0,1]$, we study the parking preference of the last car, denoted $a_m$, and determine the conditional distribution of $a_m$ and compute its expected value. We show that both formulas depict explicit dependence on the probability parameter $p$. We study the case where $m = cn $ for some $ 0 < c < 1 $ and investigate the asymptotic behavior and show that the presence of ``extra spots'' on the street significantly affects the rate at which the conditional distribution of $ a_m $ converges to the uniform distribution on $[n]$. Even for small $ \varepsilon = 1 - c $, an $ \varepsilon $-proportion of extra spots reduces the convergence rate from $ 1/\sqrt{n} $ to $ 1/n $ when $ p \neq 1/2 $. Additionally, we examine how the convergence rate depends on $c$, while keeping $n$ and $p$ fixed. We establish that as $c$ approaches zero, the total variation distance between the conditional distribution of $a_m$ and the uniform distribution on $[n]$ decreases at least linearly in $c$.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2502_00269
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Probabilistic $(m,n)$-Parking Functions
Harris, Pamela E.
Ribeiro, Rodrigo
Yin, Mei
Probability
Combinatorics
In this article, we establish new results on the probabilistic parking model (introduced by Durmíc, Han, Harris, Ribeiro, and Yin) with $m$ cars and $n$ parking spots and probability parameter $p\in[0,1]$. For any $ m \leq n$ and $p \in [0,1]$, we study the parking preference of the last car, denoted $a_m$, and determine the conditional distribution of $a_m$ and compute its expected value. We show that both formulas depict explicit dependence on the probability parameter $p$. We study the case where $m = cn $ for some $ 0 < c < 1 $ and investigate the asymptotic behavior and show that the presence of ``extra spots'' on the street significantly affects the rate at which the conditional distribution of $ a_m $ converges to the uniform distribution on $[n]$. Even for small $ \varepsilon = 1 - c $, an $ \varepsilon $-proportion of extra spots reduces the convergence rate from $ 1/\sqrt{n} $ to $ 1/n $ when $ p \neq 1/2 $. Additionally, we examine how the convergence rate depends on $c$, while keeping $n$ and $p$ fixed. We establish that as $c$ approaches zero, the total variation distance between the conditional distribution of $a_m$ and the uniform distribution on $[n]$ decreases at least linearly in $c$.
title Probabilistic $(m,n)$-Parking Functions
topic Probability
Combinatorics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.00269