TITLE: Polya's urn model - limit distribution
QUESTION [7 upvotes]: Let an urn contain $w$ white and $b$ black balls. Draw a ball randomly from the urn and return it together with another ball of the same color. Let $b_n$ be the number of black balls and $w_n$ the number of white balls after the $n$-th draw-and-replacement. Let $X_n$ be the relative proportion of white balls after the $n$-th draw-and-replacement.
I start with $b=w=1$, so the total number of balls after the $n$-th draw-and-replacement is $n+2$.
Now I want to find the limit distribution of $X_n$; I already showed that $X_n$ is a martingale and that it converges a.s.
It is
$$X_n = \dfrac{w_n}{n+2} \quad\text{for}\quad n \in \mathbb{N}_0. $$
I've read that the limit distribution is a beta distribution, but I don't know how to get there.
I could write $w_n$ as the sum of $Y_i$ where $Y_i$ is $0$, if the $i$-th ball is black and $1$, if the $i$-th ball is black. Then I'd have
$$ w_n = 1+\sum_{i=1}^{n} Y_i. $$
Does this help? How can I proceed?
Thanks! :)

REPLY [2 votes]: Suppose that we have started with $w$ white balls and $b$ black balls. Then
\begin{align*}
\mathbb{P}(w_n = w+k)
&= \binom{n}{k} \frac{w(w+1)\dots(w+k-1)b(b+1)\dots(b+n-k-1)}{(w+b)(w+b+1)\dots(w+b+n-1)} \\
&= \frac{1}{B(w, b)} \binom{n}{k} \frac{\Gamma(w+k)\Gamma(b+n-k)}{\Gamma(w+b+n)} \\
&= \frac{1}{B(w, b)} \frac{k^{w-1} (n-k)^{b-1}}{n^{w+b-1}} \frac{E_k(w)E_{n-k}(b)}{E_n(b+w)} ,
\end{align*}
where $\Gamma(\cdot)$ is the gamma function, $B(\alpha, \beta) = \frac{\Gamma(\alpha)\Gamma(\beta)}{\Gamma(\alpha+\beta)}$ is the beta function, and
$$ E_n(z) := \frac{\Gamma(n+z)}{n!n^{z-1}}. $$
Note that $E_n(z) \to 1$ as $n\to\infty$. So, if we write $p_k = k/n$, then the m.g.f. of $X_n$ is explicitly given by
\begin{align*}
\mathbb{E}[e^{\lambda X_n}]
= \frac{1}{B(w, b)} \sum_{k=0}^{n} \exp\biggl( \lambda \frac{p_k + w/n}{1 + (w+b)/n} \biggr) p_k^{w-1}(1 - p_k)^{b-1} \frac{1}{n} \cdot \frac{E_k(w)E_{n-k}(b)}{E_n(b+w)}.
\end{align*}
Letting $n \to \infty$, this converges to
\begin{align*}
\mathbb{E}[e^{\lambda X_{\infty}}]
= \frac{1}{B(w, b)} \int_{0}^{1} e^{\lambda p} p^{w-1}(1 - p)^{b-1} \, \mathrm{d}p.
\end{align*}
From this, we read out that the distribution of $X_{\infty}$ has the density
$$ f(p) = \frac{1}{B(w, b)} p^{w-1}(1 - p)^{b-1} \mathbf{1}_{(0,1)}(p), $$
proving that the limit distribution is $\operatorname{Beta}(w, b)$.