Point processes in the plane

In this survey paper, two-parameter point processes are studied in connection with martingale theory and with respect to the partial-order induced by the Cartesian coordinates of the plane. Point processes are characterized by jump stopping times and by their two-parameter compensators. Properties of the doubly stochastic Poisson process, such as predictability, are discussed. A definition for the Palm measure of a two-parameter stationary point process is proposed.     

The set-indexed Lévy process: Stationarity,Markov and sample paths properties

We present a satisfactory definition of the important class of Lévy processes indexed by a general collection of sets. We use a new definition for increment stationarity of set-indexed processes to obtain different characterizations of this class. As an example, the set-indexed compound Poisson process is introduced. The set-indexed Lévy process is characterized by infinitely divisible laws and a Lévy–Khintchine representation. Moreover, the following concepts are discussed: projections on flows, Markov properties, and pointwise continuity. Finally the study of sample paths leads to a Lévy–Itô decomposition. As a corollary, the semi-martingale property is proved.     

Real harmonizable multifractional stable process and its local properties

A real harmonizable multifractional stable process is defined, its Hölder continuity and localizability are proved. The existence of local time is shown and its regularity is established.     

Two-parameter diffusion processes and martingales

We introduce a class of two-parameter processes which are diffusions on each coordinate and satisfy a particular Markov property related to the partial ordering in R²₊. These processes can be expressed as solutions of some stochastic integral equations driven by a two-parameter Wiener process and two families of ordinary Brownian motions. This result is based on a characterization of two-parameter martingales with orthogonal increments.     

Stopping for two-dimensional stochastic processes

The aim of this paper is to introduce some techniques that can be used in the study of stochastic processes which have as parameter set the positive quadrant of the plane R²₊. We define stopping lines and derive an interesting property of measurability for them. The notion of predictability is developed, and we show the connection between predictable processes, fields associated with stopping lines, and predictable stopping lines. We also give a theorem of section for predictable sets. Extension to processes indexed by any partially ordered set with some regularity assumptions can be carried out quite easily with the same techniques.     

On smoothness properties of spatial processes

For inferential analysis of spatial data, probability modelling in the form of a spatial stochastic process is often adopted. In the univariate case, a realization of the process is a surface over the region of interest. The specification of the process has implications for the smoothness of process realizations and the existence of directional derivatives. In the context of stationary processes, the work of Kent (Ann. Probab. 17 (1989) 1432) pursues the notion of a.s. continuity while the work of Stein (Interpolation of Spatial Data; Some Theory for Kriging, Springer, New York, 1999) follows the path of mean square continuity (and, more generally, mean square differentiability). Our contribution is to clarify and extend these ideas in various ways. Our presentation is self-contained and not at a deep mathematical level. It will be of primary value to the spatial modeller seeking greater insight into these smoothness issues.     

A canonical setting and separating times for continuous local martingales

The notion of a separating time for a pair of measures on a filtered space is helpful for studying problems of (local) absolute continuity and singularity of measures. In this paper, we describe a certain canonical setting for continuous local martingales (abbreviated below as CLMs) and find an explicit form of separating times for CLMs in this setting.     

On permanental processes

Permanental processes can be viewed as a generalization of squared centered Gaussian processes. We analyze the connections of these processes with the local time process of general Markov processes. The obtained results are related to the notion of infinite divisibility.     

Absolute continuity of the invariant measure in piecewise deterministic Markov Processes having degenerate jumps

We consider piecewise deterministic Markov processes with degenerate transition kernels of the house-of-cards- type. We use a splitting scheme based on jump times to prove the absolute continuity, as well as some regularity, of the invariant measure of the process. Finally, we obtain finer results on the regularity of the one-dimensional marginals of the invariant measure, using integration by parts with respect to the jump times.     

Gaussian approximation of local empirical processes indexed by functions

Summary. An extended notion of a local empirical process indexed by functions is introduced, which includes kernel density and regression function estimators and the conditional empirical process as special cases. Under suitable regularity conditions a central limit theorem and a strong approximation by a sequence of Gaussian processes are established for such processes. A compact law of the iterated logarithm (LIL) is then inferred from the corresponding LIL for the approximating sequence of Gaussian processes. A number of statistical applications of our results are indicated. Received: 11 January 1995/In revised form: 12 July 1996     

Sharp Gaussian regularity on the circle, and applications to the fractional stochastic heat equation

A sharp regularity theory is established for homogeneous Gaussian fields on the unit circle. Two types of characterizations for such a field to have a given almost-sure uniform modulus of continuity are established in a general setting. The first characterization relates the modulus to the field's canonical metric; the full force of Fernique's zero-one laws and Talagrand's theory of majorizing measures is required. The second characterization ties the modulus to the field's random Fourier series representation. As an application, it is shown that the fractional stochastic heat equation has, up to a non-random constant, a given spatial modulus of continuity if and only if the same property holds for a fractional antiderivative of the equation's additive noise; a random Fourier series characterization is also given.     

Time consistent dynamic risk processes

A crucial property for dynamic risk measures is the time consistency. In this paper, a characterization of time consistency in terms of a “cocycle condition” for the minimal penalty function is proved for general dynamic risk measures continuous from above. Then the question of the regularity of paths is addressed. It is shown that, for a time consistent dynamic risk measure normalized and non-degenerate, the process associated with any bounded random variable has a càdlàg modification, under a mild condition always satisfied in the case of continuity from below. When normalization is not assumed, a right continuity condition on the penalty has to be added.     

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.     

Path and semimartingale properties of chaos processes

The present paper characterizes various properties of chaos processes which in particular include processes where all time variables admit a Wiener chaos expansion of a fixed finite order. The main focus is on the semimartingale property, p$p$-variation and continuity. The general results obtained are finally used to characterize when a moving average is a semimartingale.     

Vectors of two-parameter Poisson-Dirichlet processes

The definition of vectors of dependent random probability measures is a topic of interest in applications to Bayesian statistics. They represent dependent nonparametric prior distributions that are useful for modelling observables for which specific covariate values are known. In this paper we propose a vector of two-parameter Poisson-Dirichlet processes. It is well-known that each component can be obtained by resorting to a change of measure of a σ-stable process. Thus dependence is achieved by applying a Lévy copula to the marginal intensities. In a two-sample problem, we determine the corresponding partition probability function which turns out to be partially exchangeable. Moreover, we evaluate predictive and posterior distributions.     

Diffusions on path and loop spaces: existence, finite dimensional approximation and Hölder continuity

Summary. We construct Ornstein–Uhlenbeck processes and more general diffusion processes on path and loop spaces of Riemannian manifolds by finite dimensional approximation. We also show H?lder continuity of the sample paths w.r.t. the supremum norm. The proofs are based on the Lyons–Zheng decomposition. Received: 6 September 1996 / In revised form: 1 April 1997     

A sampling theorem for multivariate stationary processes

The notion of sampling for second-order q-variate processes is defined. It is shown that if the components of a q-variate process (not necessarily stationary) admits a sampling theorem with some sample spacing, then the process itself admits a sampling theorem with the same sample spacing. A sampling theorem for q-variate stationary processes, under a periodicity condition on the range of the spectral measure of the process, is proved in the spirit of Lloy's work. This sampling theorem is used to show that if a q-variate stationary process admits a sampling theorem, then each of its components will admit a sampling theorem too.     

Equivalence of two notions of continuity for stationary continuous-time information sources

The notion of continuity for continuous-time information sources which was introduced by Pinsker has found numerous applications in information theory. Continuity in probability is an important concept in the theory of continuous-time stochastic processes. It is shown that these two forms of continuity are equivalent for stationary processes whose state space is a separable metric space.     

Smoothness of Gaussian local times beyond the local nondeterminism

The joint continuity of Gaussian local times is investigated under conditions strictly weaker than the local nondeterminism. Our conditions are given in terms of the interpolation variances only and they cover the class of Gaussian Markov processes. A new order of infinitesimal in the tail probability of the local time at the origin is obtained.     

Dependence orderings for some functionals of multivariate point processes

We study dependence orderings for functionals of k-variate point processes Φ and Ψ. We view the first process as a collection of counting measures, whereas the second as the sequences of interpoint distances. Subsequently, we establish regularity properties of stationary sequences which generalize known results for iid case. The theoretical results are illustrated by many special cases including comparison of multivariate sums and products, comparison of multivariate shock models and queueing systems.