Sequential Search Algorithm for Estimation of the Number of Classes in a Given Population
Keywords:
Unobserved species, estimation of population size, sequential estimation procedure, error probabilityAbstract
Let N be the number of classes in a population to be estimated. Fix any preassigned error probability
0<epsilon< exp(-2) (roughly). We present a sequential search algorithm to estimate the exact value of N, with an error probability of at most epsilon, regardless of the value of N.