Asymptotic behavior of the dwell time distribution for a random walk on a positive semi-axis

Let ₁, ₂, ... be a sequence of independent identically distributed random variables with zero means. We consider the functional _n = _k=o ⁿ (S _k ) where S₁=0, S_k= _i=1 ^k _i (k1) and(x)=1 for x0,(x) = 0 for x<0. It is readily seen that _n is the time spent by the random walk S_n, n0, on the positive semi-axis after n steps. For the simplest walk the asymptotics of the distribution P (_n = k) for n and k, as well as for k = O(n) and k/n<1, was studied in 1]. In this paper we obtain the asymptotic expansions in powers of n^–1 of the probabilities P(h_n = nx) and P(nx_{1 n} nx₂) for 0<₁, x = k/n ₂<1, 0<₁x₁2₂<1.Translated from Matematicheskie Zametki, Vol. 15, No. 4, pp. 613–620, April, 1974.The author wishes to thank B. A. Rogozin for valuable discussions in the course of his work.