Background: Having failed to solve a general problem that I posted more than a year ago on mathoverflow.net, I have now resorted to numerical methods (involving finite probability distributions) . This has resulted in probabilities of events given by sums of polynomial degree n terms each obtained from a probability generating function . The terms are functions of n decision variables subject to linear constraints. Off the shelf, numerical non-linear optimisation methods are at present being used to optimise the decision variables. Even for small problems, n=4 , there are some minor choice of algorithm questions and I would like to solve up to n=16: there are English county chess teams of 16 players. I trust Normality will kick in before n=16
Question: What is the convention here about seeking literature references and relative expert opinion about numerical methods for special structure problems , related to (probability) problems which have so far escaped analytical treatment? More colloquially, what can a poster get away with?