Past exam of the year 1 of the computer science course of the University of Oxford / 2015 / Discrete mathematics, continuous mathematics, and probability (resit) / 7 / b / ii

Put $D=1-(1-p)(1-q)=p+q-pq$. By the law of total probability,For $0\le t<1$, termwise differentiation of the geometric series, valid inside its radius of convergence, givesTaking $t=(1-p)(1-q)$ therefore yieldsSince $D-p=(1-p)q$, this is the zero-based geometric distribution with parameterThis illustrates Bernoulli thinning of a geometric count. Here $0<p_{\ast }<1$, as $0<p,q<1$.

For the reverse conditional distribution, Bayes' theorem gives, for $n\ge k$,ThusFor $n<k$ the conditional probability is zero. The conditional distribution of $X-k$ is the failure-count form of a negative binomial distribution, with $k+1$ successes and success parameter $r$: the geometric-binomial posterior is shifted negative binomial.