We develop techniques for computing the asymptotics of the first and second moments of the number T N of coupons that a collector has to buy in order to find all N existing different coupons as N → ∞. The probabilities (occurring frequencies) of the coupons can be quite arbitrary. From these asymptotics we obtain the leading behavior of the variance V[T N ] of T N (see Theorems 3.1 and 4.4). Then, we combine our results with the general limit theorems of Neal in order to derive the limit distribution of T N (appropriately normalized), which, for a large class of probabilities, turns out to be the standard Gumbel distribution. We also give various illustrative examples.

The "double Dixie cup problem" of D.J. Newman and L. Shepp [19] is a well-known variant of the coupon collector's problem, where the object of study is the number T m (N ) of coupons that a collector has to buy in order to complete m sets of all N existing different coupons. More precisely, the problem is to determine the asymptotics of the expectation (and the variance) of T m (N ), as well as its limit distribution, as the number N of different coupons becomes arbitrarily large. The classical case of the problem, namely the case of equal coupon probabilities, is here extended to the general case, where the probabilities of the selected coupons are unequal.In the beginning of the article we give a brief review of the formulas for the moments and the moment generating function of the random variable T m (N ). Then, we develop techniques of computing the asymptotics of the first and the second moment of T m (N ) (our techniques apply to the higher moments of T m (N ) as well). From these asymptotic formulas we obtain the leading behavior of the variance V [ T m (N ) ] as N → ∞. Finally, based on the asymptotics of E[ T m (N ) ] and V [ T m (N ) ] we obtain the limit distribution of the random variable T m (N ) for large classes of coupon probabilities. As it turns out, in many cases, albeit not always, T m (N ) (appropriately normalized) converges in distribution to a Gumbel random variable. Our results on the limit distribution of T m (N ) generalize a well-known result of P. Erdős and A. Rényi [12] regarding the limit distribution of T m (N ) for the case of equal coupon probabilities.

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We consider the discrete analog of the transmission eigenvalue problem with a spherically symmetric index of refraction √ ρ. We show that, generically, ρ can be recovered from the transmission eigenvalues.

We develop techniques for computing the asymptotics of the first and second moments of the number TN of coupons that a collector has to buy in order to find all N existing different coupons as N → ∞. The probabilities (occurring frequencies) of the coupons can be quite arbitrary. From these asymptotics we obtain the leading behavior of the variance V[TN] of TN (see Theorems 3.1 and 4.4). Then, we combine our results with the general limit theorems of Neal in order to derive the limit distribution of TN (appropriately normalized), which, for a large class of probabilities, turns out to be the standard Gumbel distribution. We also give various illustrative examples.