Small mass asymptotic for the motion with vanishing friction

We consider the small mass asymptotic (Smoluchowski–Kramers approximation) for the Langevin equation with a variable friction coefficient. The friction coefficient is assumed to be vanishing within certain region. We introduce a regularization for this problem and study the limiting motion for the 1-dimensional case and a multidimensional model problem. The limiting motion is a Markov process on a projected space. We specify the generator and the boundary condition of this limiting Markov process and prove the convergence.     

Conditional large deviations for a sequence of words

Cut an i.i.d. sequence (_Xi)$\left(X_i\right)$ of ‘letters’ into ‘words’ according to an independent renewal process. Then one obtains an i.i.d. sequence of words, and thus the level 3 large deviation behaviour of this sequence of words is governed by the specific relative entropy. We consider the corresponding problem for the conditional   empirical process of words, where one conditions on a typical underlying (_Xi)$\left(X_i\right)$. We find that if the tails of the word lengths decay exponentially, the large deviations under the conditional distribution are almost surely again governed by the specific relative entropy, but the set of attainable limits is restricted.     

Multivariate Markov-switching ARMA processes with regularly varying noise

The tail behaviour of stationary R^d-valued Markov-switching ARMA (MS-ARMA) processes driven by a regularly varying noise is analysed. It is shown that under appropriate summability conditions the MS-ARMA process is again regularly varying as a sequence. Moreover, it is established that these summability conditions are satisfied if the sum of the norms of the autoregressive parameters is less than one for all possible values of the parameter chain, which leads to feasible sufficient conditions.Our results complement in particular those of Saporta [Tail of the stationary solution of the stochastic equation Y_n+1=a_nY_n+b_n with Markovian coefficients, Stochastic Process. Appl. 115 (2005) 1954-1978.] where regularly varying tails of one-dimensional MS-AR(1) processes coming from consecutive large values of the parameter chain were studied.     

Correction added in proof

Summary We extend Sanov's theorem on i.i.d. large deviations to independent but not identically distributed random variables, and study the generalization of relative entropy that appears as the rate function.     

On the time inhomogeneous skew Brownian motion

This paper is devoted to the construction of a solution for the “Inhomogeneous skew Brownian motion” equation, which first appeared in a seminal paper by Sophie Weinryb, and recently, studied by Étoré and Martinez. Our method is based on the use of the Balayage formula. At the end of this paper we study a limit theorem of solutions.     

Mean first passage times of two-dimensional processes with jumps

In this paper, we incorporate a jump component into the model based on a two-dimensional degenerate diffusion process for the remaining lifetime of machines in the recent paper [Lefebvre, M., 2010. Mean first-passage time to zero for wear processes. Stochastic Models 26, 46-53] by the second author. We calculate explicitly the expected value of first passage times associated to the two-dimensional process when the jump component is taken to be a compound Poisson process with exponential jumps and random proportion of jumps.     

Large deviations for the radial processes of the Brownian motions on hyperbolic spaces

Using the heat kernel estimates by Davies (1989) and Anker et al. (1996), we show large deviations for the radial processes of the Brownian motions on hyperbolic spaces.     

Large deviations for lattice systems I. Parametrized independent fields

Summary We prove large deviation theorems for empirical measures of independent random fields whose distributions depend measurably on an auxiliary parameter. This dependence respects the action of the shift group, and a large deviation principle holds whenever a certain ergodicity condition is satisfied. We also investigate the entropy functions for these processes, especially in relation to the usual relative entropy.     

A criterion for a continuous spectral density

For a given weakly stationary random field indexed by the integer lattice of an arbitrary finite dimension, a necessary and sufficient condition is given for the existence of a continuous spectral density. The condition involves the covariances of pairs of sums of the random variables, with the two index sets being “separated” from each other (but possibly “interlaced”) by a certain distance along a coordinate direction.     

Compound Poisson approximation for unbounded functions on a group,with application to large deviations

Summary A second order error bound is obtained for approximating h d by h d , where is a convolution of measures andQ a compound Poisson measure on a measurable abelian group, and the functionh is not necessarily bounded. This error bound is more refined than the usual total variation bound in the sense that it contains the functionh. The method used is inspired by Stein's method and hinges on bounding Radon-Nikodym derivatives related to . The approximation theorem is then applied to obtain a large deviation result on groups, which in turn is applied to multivariate Poisson approximation.Research of the second author was supported by Schweizerischer Nationalfonds     

Operator self similar stochastic processes in Rd

Operator self similar stochastic processes taking values in a finite dimensional Euclidean space are introduced and some of their properties are studied.     

Limit theorems for path-functionals of regenerative processes

Regenerative processes were defined and investigated by Smith [12]. These processes have limiting distributions under very mild regularity conditions. In certain applications, such as shot-noise processes and some queueing problems, it is of interest to consider path-functionals of regenerative processes. We seek to extend the nice asymptotic properties of regenerative processes to path-functionals of regenerative processes. We show that these more general processes converge to a “steady-state” process in a certain weak sense. This is applied to show convergence of shot-noise processes. We also present a Blackwell theorem for path-functionals of regenerative processes.     

Non-uniqueness of stationary measures for self-stabilizing processes

We investigate the existence of invariant measures for self-stabilizing diffusions. These stochastic processes represent roughly the behavior of some Brownian particle moving in a double-well landscape and attracted by its own law. This specific self-interaction leads to nonlinear stochastic differential equations and permits pointing out singular phenomena like non-uniqueness of associated stationary measures. The existence of several invariant measures is essentially based on the non-convex environment and requires generalized Laplace’s method approximations.     

Action functional for diffusions in discontinuous media

Summary The action functional, i.e. the rate function governing the large deviations is obtained for a family of stochastic processes with discontinuous drift and small diffusion. A well-known method of continuous mapping is developed which proves to be efficient in a so called stable case.     

Large deviations for random dynamical systems and applications to hidden Markov models

In this paper, we prove the large deviation principle (LDP) for the occupation measures of not necessarily irreducible random dynamical systems driven by Markov processes. The LDP for not necessarily irreducible dynamical systems driven by i.i.d. sequence is derived. As a further application we establish the LDP for extended hidden Markov models, filling a gap in the literature, and obtain large deviation estimations for the log-likelihood process and maximum likelihood estimator of hidden Markov models.     

Approximation and support theorems in modulus spaces

Summary We prove an approximation theorem for stochastic differential equations, under rather weak smoothness conditions on the coefficients, when the driving semimartingales are approximated by continuous semimartingales, in probability, and the solutions are considered in several Banach spaces, defined in terms of different types of the modulus of continuity. Hence Stroock-Varadhan's support theorem is obtained in these spaces, in particular, in appropriate Besov and Hölder spaces.Partially supported by the Foundation of National Research n° 2290Partially supported by the DGICYT grant n^o PB 90-0452     

Refinements of the Gibbs conditioning principle

Summary Refinements of Sanov's large deviations theorem lead via Csiszár's information theoretic identity to refinements of the Gibbs conditioning principle which are valid for blocks whose length increase with the length of the conditioning sequence. Sharp bounds on the growth of the block length with the length of the conditioning sequence are derived.Partially supported by NSF DMS92-09712 grant and by a US-Israel BSF grantPartially supported by a US-Israel BSF grant and by the fund for promotion of research at the Technion     

An application of Taylor series in the approximation of solutions to stochastic differential equations with time-dependent delay

The subject of this paper is the analytic approximation method for solving stochastic differential equations with time-dependent delay. Approximate equations are defined on equidistant partitions of the time interval, and their coefficients are Taylor approximations of the coefficients of the initial equation. It will be shown, without making any restrictive assumption for the delay function, that the approximate solutions converge in L^p-norm and with probability 1 to the solution of the initial equation. Also, the rate of the L^p convergence increases when the degrees in the Taylor approximations increase, analogously to what is found in real analysis. At the end, a procedure will be presented which allows the application of this method, with the assumption of continuity of the delay function.     

Linear forward-backward stochastic differential equations with random coefficients

Solvability of linear forward-backward stochastic differential equations (FBSDEs, for short) with random coefficients is studied. A decoupling reduction method is introduced via which a large class of linear FBSDEs with random or deterministic time-varying coefficients is proved to be solvable. On the other hand, by means of Four Step Scheme, a Riccati backward stochastic equation (BSDE, for short) for (m×n) matrix-valued processes is derived. Global solvability of such Riccati BSDEs is discussed for some special (but nontrivial) cases, which leads to the solvability of the corresponding linear FBSDEs. This work is supported in part by the NSFC, under grant 10131030, the Chinese Education Ministry Science Foundation under grant 2000024605, the Cheung Kong Scholars Programme, and Shanghai Commission of Science and Technology under grant 02DJ14063.     

The Discounted Limit Theorems

The large deviation theorems, exponential inequalities and a non-uniform estimate of the Berry–Esséen theorem in a discounted version are proved.Dedicated to Professor Vytautas Statulevičius on the occasion of his 75th birthday.