title: Ewens' sampling formula and related formulae: combinatorial proofs, extensions to variable population size and applications to ages of alleles.
abstract: Ewens' sampling formula, the probability distribution of a configuration of alleles in a sample of genes under the infinitely-many-alleles model of mutation, is proved by a direct combinatorial argument. The distribution is extended to a model where the population size may vary back in time. The distribution of age-ordered frequencies in the population is also derived in the model, extending the GEM distribution of age-ordered frequencies in a model with a constant-sized population. The genealogy of a rare allele is studied using a combinatorial approach. A connection is explored between the distribution of age-ordered frequencies and ladder indices and heights in a sequence of random variables. In a sample of n genes the connection is with ladder heights and indices in a sequence of draws from an urn containing balls labelled 1,2,...,n; and in the population the connection is with ladder heights and indices in a sequence of independent uniform random variables.
authors.affiliation: Department of Statistics, University of Oxford, 1 South Parks Rd, Oxford OX1 3TG, UK. griff@stats.ox.ac.uk
authors.forename: Robert C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Griffiths
authors.forename: Sabin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lessard
mesh_terms: D000483:Alleles; D008957:Models, Genetic; D009154:Mutation; D011156:Population Density; D013997:Time Factors