Shelf life of candidates in the generalized secretary problem (Q1694784)

This paper presents a survey on the duration problems (see [\textit{T. S. Ferguson} et al., Contemp. Math. 125, 37--57 (1992; Zbl 0745.62079)]) and a new solution to a problem of this type. In the classical duration problem, a decision maker observes a sequence of observations that can be ranked with respect to the observations that have been seen so far. Only one object can be taken. The payoff of the decision maker is the time for which the chosen object remains the best seen so far (from the moment when it is chosen). The authors present the solution to the problem in which the payoff of the decision maker is the time for which the object chosen remains one of the best two observations seen so far. A precise mathematical model is constructed and a complete solution is provided for the problem. The optimal strategy is of threshold type, i.e. it immediately selects the best candidate if it appears after or on time \(k_1^*\) and it immediately selects the second best candidate if it appears after time \(k_2^*>k_1^*\). For \(n\rightarrow\infty\), \(\frac{k_1^*}{n}\) converges to \(0.120381\dots\) and \(\frac{k_2^*}{n}\) to \(0.417188\dots\). The asymptotic mean time of shelf life of the relatively best or the second best object is \(0.403827\dots N\).