For Markov processes with absorption, we provide general criteria ensuring the existence and the exponential non-uniform convergence in total variation norm to a quasi-stationary distribution. We also characterize a subset of its domain of attraction by an integrability condition, prove the existence of a right eigenvector for the semigroup of the process and the existence and exponential ergodicity of the Q-process. These results are applied to one-dimensional and multi-dimensional diffusion processes, to pure jump continuous time processes, to reducible processes with several communication classes, to perturbed dynamical systems and discrete time processes evolving in discrete state spaces.
This paper aims to provide some tools coming from functional inequalities to deal with quasi-stationarity for absorbed Markov processes. First, it is shown how a Poincaré inequality related to a suitable Doob transform entails exponential convergence of conditioned distributions to a quasi-stationary distribution in total variation and in $1$-Wasserstein distance. A special attention is paid to multi-dimensional diffusion processes, for which the aforementioned Poincaré inequality is implied by an easier-to-check Bakry-Émery condition depending on the right eigenvector for the sub-Markovian ge…
We are interested in quasi-stationarity and quasi-ergodicity when the absorbing boundary is moving. First we show that, in the moving boundary case, the quasi-stationary distribution and the quasi-limiting distribution are not well-defined when the boundary is oscillating periodically. Then we show the existence of a quasi-ergodic distribution for any discrete-time irreducible Markov chain defined on a finite space state in the fixed boundary case. Finally we use this last result to show the quasi-ergodicity in the moving boundary case.
The quantitative long time behavior of absorbing, finite, irreducible Markov processes is considered. Via Doob transforms, it is shown that only the knowledge of the ratio of the values of the underlying first Dirichlet eigenvector is necessary to come back to the well-investigated situation of the convergence to equilibrium of ergodic finite Markov processes. This leads to explicit estimates on the convergence to quasi-stationarity, in particular via functional inequalities. When the process is reversible, the optimal exponential rate consisting of the spectral gap between the two first Diric…
We are interested in the quasi-stationarity of the time-inhomogeneous Markov process X t = B t (t + 1) $κ$ where (B t) t$\ge$0 is a one-dimensional Brownian motion and $κ$ $\in$ (0, $\infty$). We first show that the law of X t conditioned not to go out from (--1, 1) until the time t converges weakly towards the Dirac measure $δ$ 0 when $κ$ > 1 2 as t goes to infinity. Then we show that this conditioned probability converges weakly towards the quasi-stationary distribution of an Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process when $κ$ = 1 2. Finally, when $κ$ < 1 2 , it is shown that the conditioned probability con…
For a relatively large class of well-behaved absorbing (or killed) finite Markov chains, we give detailed quantitative estimates regarding the behavior of the chain before it is absorbed (or killed). Typical examples are random walks on box-like finite subsets of the square lattice $\mathbb Z^d$ absorbed (or killed) at the boundary. The analysis is based on Poincaré, Nash, and Harnack inequalities, moderate growth, and on the notions of John and inner-uniform domains.
This paper deals with ergodic theorems for particular time-inhomogeneous Markov processes, whose the time-inhomogeneity is asymptotically periodic. Under a Lyapunov/minorization condition, it is shown that, for any measurable bounded function $f$, the time average $\frac{1}{t} \int_0^t f(X_s)ds$ converges in $\mathbb{L}^2$ towards a limiting distribution, starting from any initial distribution for the process $(X_t)_{t \geq 0}$. This convergence can be improved to an almost sure convergence under an additional assumption on the initial measure. This result will be then applied to show the exis…
We analyze the long-term stability of a stochastic model designed to illustrate the adaptation of a population to variation in its environment. A piecewise-deterministic process modeling adaptation is coupled to a Feller logistic diffusion modeling population size. As the individual features in the population become further away from the optimal ones, the growth rate declines, making population extinction more likely. Assuming that the environment changes deterministically and steadily in a constant direction, we obtain the existence and uniqueness of the quasi-stationary distribution, the ass…
Let $(X,\p_x)$ be a continuous time Markov chain with finite or countable state space $S$ and let $T$ be its first passage time in a subset $D$ of $S$. It is well known that if $μ$ is a quasi-stationary distribution relatively to $T$, then this time is exponentially distributed under $\p_μ$. However, quasi-stationarity is not a necessary condition. In this paper, we determine more general conditions on an initial distribution $μ$ for $T$ to be exponentially distributed under $\p_μ$. We show in addition how quasi-stationary distributions can be expressed in terms of any initial law which makes …
This paper gives foundational results for the application of quasi-stationarity to Monte Carlo inference problems. We prove natural sufficient conditions for the quasi-limiting distribution of a killed diffusion to coincide with a target density of interest. We also quantify the rate of convergence to quasi-stationarity by relating the killed diffusion to an appropriate Langevin diffusion. As an example, we consider in detail a killed Ornstein--Uhlenbeck process with Gaussian quasi-stationary distribution.
This survey concerns the study of quasi-stationary distributions with a specific focus on models derived from ecology and population dynamics. We are concerned with the long time behavior of different stochastic population size processes when 0 is an absorbing point almost surely attained by the process. The hitting time of this point, namely the extinction time, can be large compared to the physical time and the population size can fluctuate for large amount of time before extinction actually occurs. This phenomenon can be understood by the study of quasi-limiting distributions. In this paper…
We study quasi-stationarity for one-dimensional diffusions killed at 0, when 0 is a regular boundary and $+\infty$ is an entrance boundary. We give a necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of exactly one quasi-stationary distribution, and we also show that this distribution attracts all initial distributions.
We consider general Markov processes with absorption and provide criteria ensuring the exponential convergence in total variation of the distribution of the process conditioned not to be absorbed. The first one is based on two-sided estimates on the transition kernel of the process and the second one on gradient estimates on its semigroup. We apply these criteria to multi-dimensional diffusion processes in bounded domains of $R^d$ or in compact Riemannian manifolds with boundary, with absorption at the boundary.
Stochastic discrete-time SIS and SIR models of endemic diseases are introduced and analyzed. For the deterministic, mean-field model, the basic reproductive number $R_0$ determines their global dynamics. If $R_0\le 1$, then the frequency of infected individuals asymptotically converges to zero. If $R_0>1$, then the infectious class uniformly persists for all time; conditions for a globally stable, endemic equilibrium are given. In contrast, the infection goes extinct in finite time with probability one in the stochastic models for all $R_0$ values. To understand the length of the transient pri…
The goal of this note is to show how recent results on the theory of quasi-stationary distributions allow to deduce effortlessly general criteria for the geometric convergence of normalized unbounded semigroups.
In this paper we analyze the quasi-stationary workload of a Lévy-driven storage system. More precisely, assuming the system is in stationarity, we study its behavior conditional on the event that the busy period $T$ in which time 0 is contained has not ended before time $t$, as $t\to\infty$. We do so by first identifying the double Laplace transform associated with the workloads at time 0 and time $t$, on the event $\{T>t\}.$ This transform can be explicitly computed for the case of spectrally one-sided jumps. Then asymptotic techniques for Laplace inversion are relied upon to find the corresp…
We study the quasi-stationary behavior of multidimensional processes absorbed when one of the coordinates vanishes. Our results cover competitive or weakly cooperative Lotka-Volterra birth and death processes and Feller diffusions with competitive Lotka-Volterra interaction. To this aim, we develop original non-linear Lyapunov criteria involving two Lyapunov functions, which apply to general Markov processes.
This paper aims to establish a central limit theorem for Markov processes conditioned not to be absorbed under a very general assumption on quasi-stationarity for the underlying process. To do so, a central limit theorem has been established for ergodic Markov processes. The conditional central limit theorem is then obtained by applying the central limit theorem to the $Q$-process.
Multivariate continuous-time ARMA(p,q) (MCARMA(p,q)) processes are the continuous-time analog of the well-known vector ARMA(p,q) processes. They have attracted interest over the last years. Methods to estimate the parameters of an MCARMA process require an identifiable parametrization such as the Echelon form with a fixed Kronecker index, which is in the one-dimensional case the degree p of the autoregressive polynomial. Thus, the Kronecker index has to be known in advance before the parameter estimation is done. When this is not the case information criteria can be used to estimate the Kronec…
This article studies the quasi-stationary behaviour of absorbed one-dimensional diffusion processes with killing on $[0,\infty)$. We obtain criteria for the exponential convergence to a unique quasi-stationary distribution in total variation, uniformly with respect to the initial distribution. Our approach is based on probabilistic and coupling methods, contrary to the classical approach based on spectral theory results. Our general criteria apply in the case where $\infty$ is entrance and 0 either regular or exit, and are proved to be satisfied under several explicit assumptions expressed onl…
Lamperti's maximal branching process is revisited, with emphasis on the description of the shape of the invariant measures in both the recurrent and transient regimes. A truncated version of this chain is exhibited, preserving the monotonicity of the original Lamperti chain supported by the integers. The Brown theory of hitting times applies to the latter chain with finite state-space, including sharp strong time to stationarity. Additional information on these hitting time problems are drawn from the quasi-stationary point of view.
This paper investigates the problem to determine whether a given stochastic process generates a sampled Brownian filtration. A fairly general sufficient condition is obtained by applying the Frank H. Clarke contraction criteria to a functional whose construction relies on the quasi-invariance properties of a sampled Wiener measure. The latter are investigated from the precise analytic structure underlying this sampled Brownian motion. In particular, the Cameron-Martin space is identified from usual Lebesgue integrals over a Guseinov measure. As an application we obtain sufficient conditions fo…
We give a derivation of tagged particle processes from unlabeled interacting Brownian motions. We give a criteria of the non-explosion property of tagged particle processes. We prove the quasi-regularity of Dirichlet forms describing the environment seen from the tagged particle, which were used in previous papers to prove the invariance principle of tagged particles of interacting Brownian motions.
