Continuous and discrete search for one of many objects
type: Item
instance of: scholarly article
title: Continuous and discrete search for one of many objects
zbMATH Open document ID: 0642.90062
DOI: 10.1016/0167-6377(87)90050-2
author: David Assaf
author: Shmuel Zamir
published in: Operations Research Letters
publication date: 1987-01-01T00:00:00Z
review text: By an easy observation we show that the basic result of \textit{D. Blackwell} [``Notes on dynamic programming'', unpublished notes, Univ. California, Berkeley (1962)], according to which the most inviting strategy is optimal in a discrete search for one object, is also true when the number of objects is random provided the search is made in continuous time. This result does not hold in the discrete search model even when only two boxes are present (contrary to a conjecture of \textit{F. H. Smith} and \textit{G. Kimeldorf} [Ann. Stat. 3, 906-915 (1975; Zbl 0312.90033)]). For the case of two boxes, a convenient sufficient condition on the distribution of the number of objects is provided which ensures optimality of the most inviting strategy. As a result, this strategy is shown to be optimal for several important distributions.
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 90B40
zbMATH DE Number: 4047430
zbMATH Keywords: uniformly optimal strategy
zbMATH Keywords: discrete search
zbMATH Keywords: most inviting strategy
MaRDI profile type: Publication
full work available at URL: 0167-6377(87)90050-2
OpenAlex ID: W2045360847
cites work: Optimal sequential search: A Bayesian approach
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description: scientific article; zbMATH DE number 4047430