McMASTER UNIVERSITY STATISTICS SEMINAR

Week of February 23 - 27, 1998

SPEAKER:

Dr Shui Feng
Department of Mathematics and Statistics, McMaster University

TITLE:

"Ewens Sampling Formulas"

DAY:

Wednesday, February 25, 1998

TIME:

3:30 p.m. [Coffee in BSB-202 at 3:00 p.m.]

PLACE:

BSB-108

SUMMARY

Ewens sampling formula describes the distribution of a random sample of size n taken from a selectively neutral haploid population which has evolved toward equilibrium. It also arises in Bayesian statistics,number theory and infinite dimensional diffusions. In this talk a detailed comparison between Ewens sampling formula and its two parameter generalization will be made from four different aspects:the urn scheme,the continuous time construction, the limiting behaviour, and the their derivation from different subordinators. A recent joint work with Dr Fred Hoppe will also be discussed as time permits.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Dr Shui Feng obtained his BSc and MSc degrees from Beijing Normal University and his PhD from Carleton University. He is now Assistant Professor of Mathematics and Statistics at McMaster University.

REFERENCES

The following articles have been provided by Dr Feng to be used as background for his talk. The second is on reserve at Thode Library (STATS 770: Statistics Seminar).

[1] Ewens, W. J. (1972). "The sampling theory of selectively neutral alleles," Theoretical Population Biology Vol 3, 87-112.

[2] Feng, S. and Hoppe, F. (1997). "Large deviation principles for some random combinatorial structures in population genetics and Brownian motion," The Annals of Applied Probability, to appear.

[3] Pitman, J. and Yor, M. (1997). "The two-parameter Poisson-Dirichlet distribution derived from a stable subordinator," The Annals of Probability, Vol. 25, No.2, 855-900.


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