Renewal theory with a trend

We prove some analogs of results from renewal theory for random walks in the case when there is a drift, more precisely when the mean of the kth summand equals k^γμ, k≥1, for some μ>0 and 0<γ≤1.     

A note on random walk in random scenery

We consider a random walk in random scenery {Xn=η(S₀)+?+η(Sn),n∈N}, where a centered walk {Sn,n∈N} is independent of the scenery {η(x),x∈Zd}, consisting of symmetric i.i.d. with tail distribution P(η(x)>t)∼exp(−cαtα), with 1?α<d/2. We study the probability, when averaged over both randomness, that {Xn>ny} for y>0, and n large. In this note, we show that the large deviation estimate is of order exp(−ca(ny)), with a=α/(α+1).     

Convergence to type I distribution of the extremes of sequences defined by random difference equation

We study the extremes of a sequence of random variables (R_n) defined by the recurrence R_n=M_nR_n−1+q, n≥1, where R₀ is arbitrary, (M_n) are iid copies of a non-degenerate random variable M, 0≤M≤1, and q>0 is a constant. We show that under mild and natural conditions on M the suitably normalized extremes of (R_n) converge in distribution to a double-exponential random variable. This partially complements a result of de Haan, Resnick, Rootzén, and de Vries who considered extremes of the sequence (R_n) under the assumption that P(M>1)>0.     

Integration by parts on the law of the reflecting Brownian motion

We prove an integration by parts formula on the law of the reflecting Brownian motion in the positive half line, where B is a standard Brownian motion. In other terms, we consider a perturbation of X of the form X^ε=X+εh with h smooth deterministic function and ε>0 and we differentiate the law of X^ε at ε=0. This infinitesimal perturbation changes drastically the set of zeros of X for any ε>0. As a consequence, the formula we obtain contains an infinite-dimensional generalized functional in the sense of Schwartz, defined in terms of Hida's renormalization of the squared derivative of B and in terms of the local time of X at 0. We also compute the divergence on the Wiener space of a class of vector fields not taking values in the Cameron-Martin space.     

Positivity of the self-diffusion matrix of interacting Brownian particles with hard core

We prove the positivity of the self-diffusion matrix of interacting Brownian particles with hard core when the dimension of the space is greater than or equal to 2. Here the self-diffusion matrix is a coefficient matrix of the diffusive limit of a tagged particle. We will do this for all activities, z>0, of Gibbs measures; in particular, for large z– the case of high density particles. A typical example of such a particle system is an infinite amount of hard core Brownian balls. Received: 22 September 1997 / Revised version: 15 January 1998     

Path continuity of fractional Dirichlet functionals

We prove that the quasi continuous version of a functional in E^p_r is continuous along the sample paths of the Dirichlet process provided that p>2, 0<r?1 and pr>2, without assuming the Meyer equivalence. Parallel results for multi-parameter processes are also obtained. Moreover, for 1<p<2, we prove that a n parameter Dirichlet process does not touch a set of (p,2n)-zero capacity. As an example, we also study the quasi-everywhere existence of the local times of martingales on path space.     

Survival of branching random walks with absorption

We consider a branching random walk on R starting from x≥0 and with a killing barrier at 0. At each step, particles give birth to b children, which move independently. Particles that enter the negative half-line are killed. In the case of almost sure extinction, we find asymptotics for the survival probability at time n, when n tends to infinity.     

Lévy area for Gaussian processes: A double Wiener-Itô integral approach

Let {X₁(t)}_0≤t≤1 and {X₂(t)}_0≤t≤1 be two independent continuous centered Gaussian processes with covariance functions R₁ and R₂. We show that if the covariance functions are of finite p-variation and q-variation respectively and such that p⁻¹+q⁻¹>1, then the Lévy area can be defined as a double Wiener-Itô integral with respect to an isonormal Gaussian process induced by X₁ and X₂. Moreover, some properties of the characteristic function of that generalised Lévy area are studied.     

Breaking the chain

We consider the motion of a Brownian particle in R$\mathbb{R}$, moving between a particle fixed at the origin and another moving deterministically away at slow speed ε>0$\epsilon >0$. The middle particle interacts with its neighbours via a potential of finite range b>0$b>0$, with a unique minimum at a>0$a>0$, where b<2a$b<2a$. We say that the chain of particles breaks on the left- or right-hand side when the middle particle is at a distance greater than b$b$ from its left or right neighbour, respectively. We study the asymptotic location of the first break of the chain in the limit of small noise, in the case where ε=ε(σ)$\epsilon =\epsilon \left(\sigma \right)$ and σ>0$\sigma >0$ is the noise intensity.     

Exponential functional of a new family of Lévy processes and self-similar continuous state branching processes with immigration

We first introduce and derive some basic properties of a two-parameters (α,γ) family of one-sided Lévy processes, with 1<α<2 and γ>−α. Their Laplace exponents are given in terms of the Pochhammer symbol as follows

     

Competitive Lotka-Volterra population dynamics with jumps

This paper considers competitive Lotka-Volterra population dynamics with jumps. The contributions of this paper are as follows. (a) We show that a stochastic differential equation (SDE) with jumps associated with the model has a unique global positive solution; (b) we discuss the uniform boundedness of the pth moment with p>0 and reveal the sample Lyapunov exponents; (c) using a variation-of-constants formula for a class of SDEs with jumps, we provide an explicit solution for one-dimensional competitive Lotka-Volterra population dynamics with jumps, and investigate the sample Lyapunov exponent for each component and the extinction of our n-dimensional model.     

A Fatou theorem for α-harmonic functions

We study functions which are harmonic in the upper half space with respect to (−Δ)^α/2, 0<α<2. We prove a Fatou theorem when the boundary function is L^p-Hölder continuous of order β and βp>1. We give examples to show this condition is sharp.     

Truncated variation, upward truncated variation and downward truncated variation of Brownian motion with drift — Their characteristics and applications

In ?ochowski (2008) [9] we defined truncated variation of Brownian motion with drift, W_t=B_t+μt,t≥0, where (B_t) is a standard Brownian motion. Truncated variation differs from regular variation in neglecting jumps smaller than some fixed c>0. We prove that truncated variation is a random variable with finite moment-generating function for any complex argument.We also define two closely related quantities — upward truncated variation and downward truncated variation.The defined quantities may have interpretations in financial mathematics. The exponential moment of upward truncated variation may be interpreted as the maximal possible return from trading a financial asset in the presence of flat commission when the dynamics of the prices of the asset follows a geometric Brownian motion process.We calculate the Laplace transform with respect to the time parameter of the moment-generating functions of the upward and downward truncated variations.As an application of the formula obtained we give an exact formula for the expected values of upward and downward truncated variations. We also give exact (up to universal constants) estimates of the expected values of the quantities mentioned.     

An intermediate Baum-Katz theorem

We extend the classical Hsu-Robbins-Erd?s theorem to the case when all moments exist, but the moment generating function does not, viz., we assume that Eexp{(log⁺|X|)^α}<∞ for some α>1. We also present multi-index versions of the same and of a related result due to Lanzinger in which the assumption is that Eexp{|X|^α}<∞ for some α∈(0,1).     

Exit time and invariant measure asymptotics for small noise constrained diffusions

Constrained diffusions, with diffusion matrix scaled by small ?>0, in a convex polyhedral cone G⊂R^k, are considered. Under suitable stability assumptions small noise asymptotic properties of invariant measures and exit times from domains are studied. Let B⊂G be a bounded domain. Under conditions, an “exponential leveling” property that says that, as ?→0, the moments of functionals of exit location from B, corresponding to distinct initial conditions, coalesce asymptotically at an exponential rate, is established. It is shown that, with appropriate conditions, difference of moments of a typical exit time functional with a sub-logarithmic growth, for distinct initial conditions in suitable compact subsets of B, is asymptotically bounded. Furthermore, as initial conditions approach 0 at a rate ?² these moments are shown to asymptotically coalesce at an exponential rate.     

Exact asymptotics of supremum of a stationary Gaussian process over a random interval

Let {X(t):t∈[0,∞)} be a centered stationary Gaussian process. We study the exact asymptotics of P(sup_s∈[0,T]X(s)>u), as u→∞, where T is an independent of {X(t)} nonnegative random variable. It appears that the heaviness of T impacts the form of the asymptotics, leading to three scenarios: the case of integrable T, the case of T having regularly varying tail distribution with parameter λ∈(0,1) and the case of T having slowly varying tail distribution.