Consider a population of individuals belonging to an infinity number of types, and assume that type proportions follow the two-parameter Poisson-Dirichlet distribution. A sample of size n is selected from the population. The total number of different
types and the number of types appearing in the sample with a fixed frequency are important statistics. In this paper we establish the moderate deviation principles for these quantities. The corresponding rate functions are explicitly identified, which help revealing a critical scale and understanding the exact role of the parameters. Conditional, or posterior, counterparts of moderate deviation principles are also established.
The Pitman-Yor process is a random discrete measure. The random weights or masses follow the two-parameter Poisson-Dirichlet distribution with parameters $0<alpha<1, theta>-alpha$. The parameters $alpha$ and $theta$ correspond to the stable and gamma
components, respectively. The distribution of atoms is given by a probability $ u$. In this article we consider the limit theorems for the Pitman-Yor process and the two-parameter Poisson-Dirichlet distribution. These include law of large numbers, fluctuations, and moderate or large deviation principles. The limiting procedures involve either $alpha$ tends to zero or one. They arise naturally in genetics and physics such as the asymptotic coalescence time for explosive branching process and the approximation to generalized random energy model for disordered system.
The two-parameter Poisson-Dirichlet distribution is the law of a sequence of decreasing nonnegative random variables with total sum one. It can be constructed from stable and Gamma subordinators with the two-parameters, $alpha$ and $theta$, correspon
ding to the stable component and Gamma component respectively. The moderate deviation principles are established for the two-parameter Poisson-Dirichlet distribution and the corresponding homozygosity when $theta$ approaches infinity, and the large deviation principle is established for the two-parameter Poisson-Dirichlet distribution when both $alpha$ and $theta$ approach zero.
The Poisson--Dirichlet distribution arises in many different areas. The parameter $theta$ in the distribution is the scaled mutation rate of a population in the context of population genetics. The limiting case of $theta$ approaching infinity is prac
tically motivated and has led to new, interesting mathematical structures. Laws of large numbers, fluctuation theorems and large-deviation results have been established. In this paper, moderate-deviation principles are established for the Poisson--Dirichlet distribution, the GEM distribution, the homozygosity, and the Dirichlet process when the parameter $theta$ approaches infinity. These results, combined with earlier work, not only provide a relatively complete picture of the asymptotic behavior of the Poisson--Dirichlet distribution for large $theta$, but also lead to a better understanding of the large deviation problem associated with the scaled homozygosity. They also reveal some new structures that are not observed in existing large-deviation results.
