A study on the Poisson, geometric and Pascal distributions motivated by Chvátal's conjecture

Abstract

Let $B(n,p)$ denote a binomial random variable with parameters $n$ and $p$. Vasěk Chvátal conjectured that for any fixed $n\ge 2$, as $m$ ranges over $\{0,\dots ,n\}$, the probability $q_m:=P(B(n,m/n)\le m)$ is the smallest when $m$ is closest to $\frac{2n}{3}$. This conjecture has been solved recently. Motivated by this conjecture, in this paper, we consider the corresponding minimum value problem on the probability that a random variable is not more than its expectation, when its distribution is the Poisson distribution, the geometric distribution or the Pascal distribution.

9 pages