Applications of the continuous-time ballot theorem to Brownian motion and related processes

Motivated by questions related to a fragmentation process which has been studied by Aldous, Pitman, and Bertoin, we use the continuous-time ballot theorem to establish some results regarding the lengths of the excursions of Brownian motion and related processes. We show that the distribution of the lengths of the excursions below the maximum for Brownian motion conditioned to first hit λ>0 at time t is not affected by conditioning the Brownian motion to stay below a line segment from (0,c) to (t,λ). We extend a result of Bertoin by showing that the length of the first excursion below the maximum for a negative Brownian excursion plus drift is a size-biased pick from all of the excursion lengths, and we describe the law of a negative Brownian excursion plus drift after this first excursion. We then use the same methods to prove similar results for the excursions of more general Markov processes.     

Asymptotic Properties of Ranked Heights in Brownian Excursions

Pitman and Yor^{(20, 21)} recently studied the distributions related to the ranked excursion heights of a Brownian bridge. In this paper, we study the asymptotic properties of the ranked heights of Brownian excursions. The heights of both high and low excursions are characterized by several integral tests and laws of the iterated logarithm. Our analysis relies on the distributions of the ranked excursion heights considered up to some random times.     

Cyclically stationary Brownian local time processes

Summary. Local time processes parameterized by a circle, defined by the occupation density up to time T of Brownian motion with constant drift on the circle, are studied for various random times T. While such processes are typically non-Markovian, their Laplace functionals are expressed by series formulae related to similar formulae for the Markovian local time processes subject to the Ray–Knight theorems for BM on the line, and for squares of Bessel processes and their bridges. For T the time that BM on the circle first returns to its starting point after a complete loop around the circle, the local time process is cyclically stationary, with same two-dimensional distributions, but not the same three-dimensional distributions, as the sum of squares of two i.i.d. cyclically stationary Gaussian processes. This local time process is the infinitely divisible sum of a Poisson point process of local time processes derived from Brownian excursions. The corresponding intensity measure on path space, and similar Lévy measures derived from squares of Bessel processes, are described in terms of a 4-dimensional Bessel bridge by Williams’ decomposition of It?’s law of Brownian excursions. Received: 28 June 1995     

Ten penalisation results of Brownian motion involving its one-sided supremum until first and last passage times, VIII

We penalise Brownian motion by a function of its one-sided supremum considered up to the last zero before t, respectively first zero after t, of that Brownian motion. This study presents some analogy with penalisation by the longest length of Brownian excursions, up to time t.     

Lévy random bridges and the modelling of financial information

The information-based asset-pricing framework of Brody-Hughston-Macrina (BHM) is extended to include a wider class of models for market information. To model the information flow, we introduce a class of processes called Lévy random bridges (LRBs), generalising the Brownian bridge and gamma bridge information processes of BHM. Given its terminal value at T, an LRB has the law of a Lévy bridge. We consider an asset that generates a cash-flow X_T at T. The information about X_T is modelled by an LRB with terminal value X_T. The price process of the asset is worked out, along with the prices of options.     

Non-independence of excursions of the Brownian sheet and of additive Brownian motion

A classical and important property of Brownian motion is that given its zero set, distinct excursions away from zero are independent. In this paper, we examine the analogous question for the Brownian sheet, and also for additive Brownian motion. Our main result is that given the level set of the Brownian sheet at level zero, distinct excursions of the sheet away from zero are not independent. In fact, given the zero set of the Brownian sheet in the entire non-negative quadrant, and the sign of all but a finite number of excursions away from zero, the signs of the remaining excursions are determined. For additive Brownian motion, we prove the following definitive result: given the zero set of additive Brownian motion and the sign of a single excursion, the signs of all other excursions are determined. In an appendix by John B. Walsh, it is shown that given the absolute value of the sheet in the entire quadrant and, in addition, the sign of the sheet at a fixed, non-random time point, then the whole sheet can be recovered.

     

A central limit theorem for branching Brownian motion with random immigration

We establish a central limit theorem for a branching Brownian motion with random immigration under the annealed law,where the immigration is determined by another branching Brownian motion.The limit is a Gaussian random measure and the normalization is t3/4for d=3 and t1/2for d≥4,where in the critical dimension d=4 both the immigration and the branching Brownian motion itself make contributions to the covariance of the limit.     

Cut-off and exit from metastability: two sides of the same coin

We present a general framework linking cut-off and exit excursions for birth-and-death processes on a countable alphabet. Under suitable hypotheses, we prove that cut-off convergence towards a (local) equilibrium is accompanied by exponentially distributed out-of-equilibrium excursions. Furthermore, atypical trajectories leading to these excursions and final cut-off trajectories are related by time inversion; in particular their time lengths have identical laws. To cite this article: O. Bertoncini et al., C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris, Ser. I 346 (2008).     

Polynomials of the occupation field and related random fields

To every symmetric Markov process there correspond two random fields over the state space: a Gaussian (“free”) field φ_x and the occupation field T_x which describes the amount of time spent by a particle at each state. For the Brownian motion in d ? 2 dimensions both fields are generalized. Using a relation between T_x and the field ξ_x = :φ_x²:/2 established in a previous publication, polynomials of the fields T and ξ are investigated. In particular, polynomials of T characterize self-intersections of the process.     

On the convergence to the multiple Wiener-Itô integral

We study the convergence to the multiple Wiener-Itô integral from processes with absolutely continuous paths. More precisely, consider a family of processes, with paths in the Cameron-Martin space, that converges weakly to a standard Brownian motion in C₀([0,T]). Using these processes, we construct a family that converges weakly, in the sense of the finite dimensional distributions, to the multiple Wiener-Itô integral process of a function f∈L²(n[0,T]). We prove also the weak convergence in the space C₀([0,T]) to the second-order integral for two important families of processes that converge to a standard Brownian motion.     

Tribute to Endre Csáki and Pál Révész

Summary This article provides a glimpse of some of the highlights of the joint work of Endre Csáki and Pál Révész since 1979. The topics of this short exploration of the rich stochastic milieu of this inspiring collaboration revolve around Brownian motion, random walks and their long excursions, local times and additive functionals, iterated processes, almost sure local and global central limit theorems, integral functionals of geometric stochastic processes, favourite sites--favourite values and jump sizes for random walk and Brownian motion, random walking in a random scenery, and large void zones and occupation times for coalescing random walks.     

Random A-permutations: Convergence to a Poisson process

Suppose that S _n is the permutation group of degree n, A is a subset of the set of natural numbers ?, and T _n(A) is the set of all permutations from S _n whose cycle lengths belong to the set A. Permutations from T _n are usually called A-permutations. We consider a wide class of sets A of positive asymptotic density. Suppose that ζ _mn is the number of cycles of length m of a random permutation uniformly distributed on T _n. It is shown in this paper that the finite-dimensional distributions of the random process {tz _mn, m ε A} weakly converge as n → ∞ to the finite-dimensional distributions of a Poisson process on A.     

Finite size Lyapunov exponent for some simple models of turbulence

Exact expressions for the finite size Lyapunov exponent λ(δ) are found and analyzed for several idealized models of turbulence in 1D and 2D. Among them are a random walk with discrete time and continuously distributed jumps and an isotropic Brownian flow in 2D also known as the Kraichnan flow. For the former a surprising fact is a δ⁻¹ scaling for intermediate values of δ in contrast to δ⁻² well known for a random walk in continuous time (Brownian flow) and for a simple random walk in discrete time. For the Kraichnan flow an exact relation is established between the scaling of λ(δ) and the scaling of relative dispersion in time.     

An Integral Test on Time-Dependent Local Extinction for Super-coalescing Brownian Motion with Lebesgue Initial Measure

This paper concerns the almost sure time-dependent local extinction behavior for super-coalescing Brownian motion X with (1+β)-stable branching and Lebesgue initial measure on ?. We first give a representation of X using excursions of a continuous-state branching process and Arratia’s coalescing Brownian flow. For any nonnegative, nondecreasing, and right-continuous function g, let $$\tau:=\sup\bigl\{t\geq0: X_t\bigl(\bigl[-g(t),g(t)\bigr]\bigr )>0 \bigr \}.$$ We prove that ?{τ=∞}=0 or 1 according as the integral $\int_{1}^{\infty}\! g(t)t^{-1-1/\beta} dt$ is finite or infinite.     

Nonergodicity of Euler fluid dynamics on tori versus positivity of the Arnold-Ricci tensor

Brownian motions above the group G of volume preserving diffeomorphisms of the torus Td, d?2, are constructed. The asymptotic behaviour for large time of those processes shows the nonexistence of a probability measure invariant under the deterministic incompressible fluid dynamics. The energy induces on the group of volume preserving diffeomorphisms of T² a Riemannian structure which has a positive renormalized Ricci tensor.     

The structure of a Brownian bubble

Summary We examine local geometric properties of level sets of the Brownian sheet, and in particular, we identify the asymptotic distribution of the area of sets which correspond to excursions of the sheet high above a given level in the neighborhood of a particular random point. It is equal to the area of certain individual connected components of the random set {(s, t):B(t)>b(s)}, whereB is a standard Brownian motion andb is (essentially) a Bessel process of dimension 3. This limit distribution is studied and, in particular, explicit formulas are given for the probability that a point belongs to a specific connected component, and for the expected area of a component given the height of the excursion ofB(t)-b(s) in this component. These formulas are evaluated numerically and compared with the results from direct simulations ofB andb.The research of this author was partially supported by grants DMS-9103962 from the National Science Foundation and DAAL03-92-6-0323 from the Army Research Office     

Harmonic functions on Walsh’s Brownian motion

We examine a variation of two-dimensional Brownian motion introduced by Walsh that can be described as Brownian motion on the spokes of a (rimless) bicycle wheel. We construct the process by randomly assigning angles to excursions of reflecting Brownian motion. Hence, Walsh’s Brownian motion behaves like one-dimensional Brownian motion away from the origin, but differently at the origin as it is immediately sent off in random directions. Given the similarity, we characterize harmonic functions as linear functions on the rays satisfying a slope-averaging property. We also classify superharmonic functions as concave functions on the rays satisfying extra conditions.     

Fractional Brownian motion with complex variance via random walk in the complex plane and applications

A model of complex-valued fractional Brownian motion has been built up recently as the limit of a random walk in the complex plane, but this model involves radial steps only. It is shown that, by using non-radial steps, this model can be easily extended to define a fractional Brownian motion with complex-valued variance. The relations between complex-valued Brownian motion and the heat equation of order n is clarified and mainly one obtains the general expression of the probability density functions for these processes. One shows that the maximum entropy principle (MPE) provides the probability density of the complex-valued fractional Brownian motion, exactly like for the standard Brownian motion. And lastly, one shows that the heat equation of order 2n (which is the Fokker–Planck equation (FPE) of the complex-valued Brownian motion) has a solution which is similar to that of the FPE of fractional order introduced before by the author, therefore, to some extent, an identification between the complex-valued model via random walk in the complex plane and the model involving a derivative of fractional order.     

High level subcritical branching processes in a random environment

A subcritical branching process in a random environment is considered under the assumption that the moment-generating function of a step of the associated random walk Θ(t), t ≥ 0, is equal to 1 for some value of the argument ? > 0. Let T _x be the time when the process first attains the half-axis (x,+∞) and T be the lifetime of this process. It is shown that the random variable T _x /lnx, considered under the condition T _x < +∞, converges in distribution to a degenerate random variable equal to 1/Θ′(?), and the random variable T/ ln x, considered under the same condition, converges in distribution to a degenerate random variable equal to 1/Θ′(?) ? 1/Θ′(0).     

Random A-permutations and Brownian motion

We consider a random permutation τ _n uniformly distributed over the set of all degree n permutations whose cycle lengths belong to a fixed set A (the so-called A-permutations). Let X _n (t) be the number of cycles of the random permutation τ _n whose lengths are not greater than n ^t , t ∈ [0, 1], and $l(t) = \sum\nolimits_{i \leqslant t,i \in A} {1/i,t > 0} $ . In this paper, we show that the finite-dimensional distributions of the random process $\{ Y_n (t) = (X_n (t) - l(n^t ))/\sqrt {\varrho \ln n} ,t \in [0,1]\} $ converge weakly as n → ∞ to the finite-dimensional distributions of the standard Brownian motion {W(t), t ∈ [0, 1]} in a certain class of sets A of positive asymptotic density ?.