Hitting, returning and the short correlation function

We consider a stochastic process with the weakest mixing condition: the so called α. For any fixed n-string we prove the following results. (1) The hitting time has approximately exponential law. (2) The return time has approximately a convex combination between a Dirac measure at the origin and an exponential law. In both cases the parameter of the exponential law is λ(A)ℙ(A) where ℙ(A) is the measure of the string and λ(A) is a certain autocorrelation function of the string. We show also that the weight of the convex combination is approximately λ(A). We describe the behavior of this autocorrelation function. Our results hold when the rate of mixing decays polinomially fast with power larger than the golden number.