On the exact asymptotic behaviour of the distribution of ladder epochs

Let T₊ denote the first increasing ladder epoch in a random walk with a typical step-length X. It is known that for a large class of random walks with E(X)=0,E(X²)=∞, and the right-hand tail of the distribution function of X asymptotically larger than the left-hand tail, $\text{P}\text{T}{}_{\mathrm{+}}\text{?n∽n}{}^{\mathrm{<mtext>1</mtext><mtext>\beta ?1</mtext>}}\text{L}{}_{\mathrm{+}}\text{(n)}$ as n→∞, with 1<β<2 and L₊ slowly varying, if and only if$\text{P}\text{{X?x}∽ 1/{x}{}^{\mathrm{\beta }}\text{L(x)}}$ as x→+∞, with L slowly varying. In this paper it is shown how the asymptotic behaviour of L determines the asymptotic behaviour of L₊ and vice versa. As a by-product, it follows that a certain class of random walks which are in the domain of attraction of one-sided stable laws is such that the down-going ladder height distribution has finite mean.     

A note on occupation times of random walks

In this note I show that some asymptotic results on the average occupancy time of an interval derived for lattice random walks with negative exponential transition probabilities are true for all random walks whose transition probabilities have a finite variance. The proof is based on the continuum limit.     

On the structure of stable random walks

We show that the Cauchy random walk on the line, and the Gaussian random walk on the plane are similar as infinite measure preserving transformations.     

Curious properties of simple random walks

A simple random walker on the line of integers shows remarkable similarities to relativistic particles.     

Area Distribution for Directed Random Walks

We study the probability distribution for the area under a directed random walk in the plane. The walk can serve as a simple model for avalanches based on the idea that the front of an avalanche can be described by a random walk and the size is given by the area enclosed. This model captures some of the qualitative features of earthquakes, avalanches, and other self-organized critical phenomena in one dimension. By finding nonlinear functional relations for the generating functions we calculate directly the exponent in the size distribution law and find it to be 4/3.     

Shortest expected delay routing for Erlang servers

The queueing problem with Poisson arrivals and two identical parallel Erlang servers is analyzed for the case of shortest expected delay routing. This problem may be represented as a random walk on the integer grid in the first quadrant of the plane. An important aspect of the random walk is that it is possible to make large jumps in the direction of the boundaries. This feature gives rise to complicated boundary behavior. Generating function approaches to analyze this type of random walk seem to be extremely complicated and have not been successful yet. The approach presented in this paper directly solves the equilibrium equations. It is shown that the equilibrium distribution of the random walk can be written as an infinite linear combination of products. This linear combination is constructed in a compensation procedure. The starting solutions for this procedure are found by solving the shortest expected delay problem with instantaneous jockeying. The results can be used for an efficient computation of performance criteria, such as the waiting time distribution and the moments of the waiting time and the queue lengths.     

A martingale approach to directed polymers in a random environment

The diffusive behavior for a system of directed polymers in a random environment was first rigorously discussed by Imbrie and Spencer, and then by Bolthausen. By means of some basic properties of martingales we extend some results due to Imbrie and Spencer concerning the asymptotic behaviour of the mean square displacement. We also obtain a Wiener process behaviour with probability one for this system. Bolthausen already used some martingale limit theorems to prove a central limit theorem for this system.Partly supported by AvH Foundation.     

The number of smallest knots on the cubic lattice

It has been shown that the smallest knots on the cubic lattice are all trefoils of length 24. In this paper, we show that the number of such unrooted knots on the cubic lattice is 3496.     

Super-Tree Random Measures

We use supercritical branching processes with random walk steps of geometrically decreasing size to construct random measures. Special cases of our construction give close relatives of the super-(spherically symmetric stable) processes. However, other cases can produce measures with very smooth densities in any dimension.     

Free energy and some sample path properties of a random walk with random potential

We study the asymptotic behavior of the free energy for a model (defined by Sinai) of one-dimensional random walk with random potential. In particular, we obtain a central limit theorem and a strong law of large numbers for this free energy. We use some results on the free energy to study some sample path properties of this random walk which are related respectively to its recurrence and localization. Some exponents describing the recurrence and localization are found.