Pathwise uniqueness for perturbed versions of Brownian motion and reflected Brownian motion

Any solution of the functional equation

Pathwise construction of additive H-transforms of super-Brownian motion

Summary The pathwise construction of additiveH-transforms of the super-Brownian motion is carried out as a modification of Le Gall's construction of superprocesses. It provides then the explicit conditioning of the super-Brownian motion on its exit behaviour at its Martin boundary, which yields an additiveH-transforms of the super-Brownian motion. The condition turns out to be that the space-time point of death of the super-Brownian motion converges in the Martin topology of the Brownian motion.Supported by an EC-Individual-Fellowship under Contract No. ERBCHBICT930682 and the SFB 256 of the University of Bonn, Germany     

Self-similarity of Brownian motion and a large deviation principle for random fields on a binary tree

Summary Using self-similarity of Brownian motion and its representation as a product measure on a binary tree, we construct a random sequence of probability measures which converges to the distribution of the Brownian bridge. We establish a large deviation principle for random fields on a binary tree. This leads to a class of probability measures with a certain self-similarity property. The same construction can be carried out forC[0, 1]-valued processes and we can describe, for instance, aC[0, 1]-valued Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process as a large deviation of Brownian sheet.     

Gene flow across geographical barriers — scaling limits of random walks with obstacles

We study a class of random walks which behave like simple random walks outside of a bounded region around the origin and which are subject to a partial reflection near the origin. We obtain a non trivial scaling limit which behaves like reflected Brownian motion until its local time at zero reaches an exponential variable. It then follows reflected Brownian motion on the other side of the origin until its local time at zero reaches another exponential level, etc. These random walks are used in population genetics to trace the position of ancestors in the past near geographical barriers.     

Brownian motion on a homogeneous random fractal

Summary We introduce a simple random fractal based on the Sierpinski gasket and construct a Brownian motion upon the fractal. The properties of the process on the Sierpinski gasket are modified by the random environment. A sample path construction of the process via time truncation is used, which is a direct construction of the process on the fractal from the associated Dirichlet forms. We obtain estimates on the resolvent and transition density for the process and hence a value for the spectral dimension which satisfiesd _s=2d _f/d_w. A branching process in a random environment can be used to deduce some of the sample path properties of the process.     

Local time–space stochastic calculus for Lévy processes

We develop a stochastic calculus on the plane with respect to the local times of a large class of Lévy processes. We can then extend to these Lévy processes an Itô formula that was established previously for Brownian motion. Our method provides also a multidimensional version of the formula. We show that this formula generates many “Itô formulas” that fit various problems. In the special case of a linear Brownian motion, we recover a recently established Itô formula that involves local times on curves. This formula is already used in financial mathematics.     

On the most visited sites by a symmetric stable process

Summary. At time t, the most visited site of a linear Brownian motion is defined as the point which realises the supremum of the local times at time t. Let V be the time indexed process of the most visited sites by a linear Brownian motion. We show that every value is polar for V. Those results are extended from Brownian motion to symmetric stable processes, and then to the absolute value of a symmetric stable process. Received: 1 March 1996 / In revised form: 17 October 1996     

Some extensions of the arc sine law as partial consequences of the scaling property of Brownian motion

Summary The scaling property of Brownian motion is exploited systematically in order to extend Paul Lévy's arc sine law to Brownian motion perturbed by its local time at 0. Other important ingredients of the proofs are some Ray-Knight theorems for local times.     

Brownian motion on the continuum tree

Summary We construct Brownian motion on a continuum tree, a structure introduced as an asymptotic limit to certain families of finite trees. We approximate the Dirichlet form of Brownian motion on the continuum tree by adjoining one-dimensional Brownian excursions. We study the local times of the resulting diffusion. Using time-change methods, we find explicit expressions for certain hitting probabilities and the mean occupation density of the process.     

An excursion approach to maxima of the Brownian bridge

Distributions of functionals of Brownian bridge arise as limiting distributions in non-parametric statistics. In this paper we will give a derivation of distributions of extrema of the Brownian bridge based on excursion theory for Brownian motion. The idea of rescaling and conditioning on the local time has been used widely in the literature. In this paper it is used to give a unified derivation of a number of known distributions, and a few new ones. Particular cases of calculations include the distribution of the Kolmogorov–Smirnov statistic and the Kuiper statistic.     

The Skorokhod problem in a time-dependent interval

We consider the Skorokhod problem in a time-varying interval. We prove existence and uniqueness of the solution. We also express the solution in terms of an explicit formula. Moving boundaries may generate singularities when they touch. Under the assumption that the first time τ$\tau$ when the moving boundaries touch after time zero is strictly positive, we derive two sets of conditions on the moving boundaries. We show that the variation of the local time of the associated reflected Brownian motion on [0,τ]$[0,\tau ]$ is finite under the first set of conditions and infinite under the second set of conditions. We also apply these results to study the semimartingale property of a class of two-dimensional reflected Brownian motions.     

Harmonic functions of subordinate killed Brownian motion

In this paper we study harmonic functions of subordinate killed Brownian motion in a domain D. We first prove that, when the killed Brownian semigroup in D is intrinsic ultracontractive, all nonnegative harmonic functions of the subordinate killed Brownian motion in D are continuous and then we establish a Harnack inequality for these harmonic functions. We then show that, when D is a bounded Lipschitz domain, both the Martin boundary and the minimal Martin boundary of the subordinate killed Brownian motion in D coincide with the Euclidean boundary ∂D. We also show that, when D is a bounded Lipschitz domain, a boundary Harnack principle holds for positive harmonic functions of the subordinate killed Brownian motion in D.     

Quadratic functionals of Brownian motion

Functionals of Brownian motion can be dealt with by realizing them as functionals of white noise. Specifically, for quadratic functionals of Brownian motion, such a realization is a powerful tool to investigate them. There is a one-to-one correspondence between a quadratic functional of white noise and a symmetric L²(R²)-function which is considered as an integral kernel. By using well-known results on the integral operator we can study probabilistic properties of quadratic or certain exponential functionals of white noise. Two examples will illustrate their significance.     

Conditioned Brownian motion in planar domains

Summary We give an upper bound for the Green functions of conditioned Brownian motion in planar domains. A corollary is the conditional gauge theorem in bounded planar domains.Supported in part by NSF grant DMS-9100244 and an AMS Centennial Fellowship     

Necessary and sufficient conditions for finiteness of lifetime

We give a geometric characterization for the finiteness of conditioned Brownian motion for a general class of simply connected domains, extending previous results and exhibit some new examples of domains with infinite area and finite lifetime.I would like to thank Professor Rodrigo Bañuelos, my academic advisor, for his help and guidance on this paper which is part of my Ph.D. thesis.     

On maximum increase and decrease of Brownian motion

The joint distribution of maximum increase and decrease for Brownian motion up to an independent exponential time is computed. This is achieved by decomposing the Brownian path at the hitting times of the infimum and the supremum before the exponential time. It is seen that an important element in our formula is the distribution of the maximum decrease for the three-dimensional Bessel process with drift started from 0 and stopped at the first hitting of a given level. From the joint distribution of the maximum increase and decrease it is possible to calculate the correlation coefficient between these at a fixed time and this is seen to be .     

Hitting times of Brownian motion and the Matsumoto–Yor property on trees

The Matsumoto–Yor property in the bivariate case was originally defined through properties of functionals of the geometric Brownian motion. A multivariate version of this property was described in the language of directed trees and outside of the framework of stochastic processes in Massam and Weso?owski [H. Massam, J. Weso?owski, The Matsumoto–Yor property on trees, Bernoulli 10 (2004) 685–700]. Here we propose its interpretation through properties of hitting times of Brownian motion, extending the interpretation given in the bivariate case in Matsumoto and Yor [H. Matsumoto, M. Yor, Interpretation via Brownian motion of some independence properties between GIG and gamma variables, Statist. Probab. Lett. 61 (2003) 253–259].     

Constructions of coupling processes for Lévy processes

We construct optimal Markov couplings of Lévy processes, whose Lévy (jump) measure has an absolutely continuous component. The construction is based on properties of subordinate Brownian motions and the coupling of Brownian motions by reflection.     

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.