The modulator of the local time

Let x(t), 0 ≦ t ≦ 1, be a real measurable function having a local time α(x, t) which is a continuous function of t for almost all x. It is also assumed that, for some m ≧ 2 and some real interval B, α^m(x, 1) is integrable over B. The modulator is a function M_m(t, B), t > 0, denned in terms of α. It is shown that the modulator serves as a measure of the smoothness of the L_m(B)-valued function α(., t) with respect to t. Then it is shown that the modulator plays a central role in precisely describing certain irregularity properties of x(t). The results are applied to the case where x(t) is the sample function of a real stochastic process. In this way new results are obtained for large classes of Gaussian and Markov processes.