Let $S=(S_n)$ be an oscillatory random walk on the integer lattice $\mathbb{Z}$ with i.i.d. increments. Let $V_{\rm d}(x)$ be the renewal function of the strictly descending ladder height process for $S$. We obtain several sufficient conditions -- given in terms of the distribution function of the increment $S_1-S_0$ -- so that as $R\to\infty$ $$ (*) \quad P [ S\; \mbox{leaves $[0,R]$ on its upper side}\, |\, S_0=x] \, \sim\, V_{\rm d}(x)/V_{\rm d}(R)$$ uniformly for $0\leq x\leq R$. When $S$ is attracted to a stable process of index $0<α\leq 2$ and there exists $ρ= \lim P[S_n>0]$, the sufficient condition obtained are also necessary for $(*)$ and fulfilled if and only if $(α\vee 1)ρ=1$, and some asymptotic estimates of the probability on the left side of $(*)$ are given in case $(α\vee 1)ρ\neq 1$.
It is proved that the two-sided exits of a Levy process are proper, i.e. not a.s. equal to their one-sided counterparts, if and only if said process is not a subordinator or the negative of a subordinator. Furthermore, Levy processes are characterized, for which the supports of the first exit times from bounded annuli, simultaneously on each of the two events corresponding to exit at the lower and the upper boundary, respectively are unbounded, contain $0$, are equal to $[0,\infty)$.
We consider the one-sided exit problem for fractional Brownian motion (FBM), which is equivalent to the question of the distribution of the lower tail of the maximum of FBM on the unit interval. We improve the bounds given by Molchan (1999) and shed some light on the relation to the quantity $I$ studied there.
A systematic exposition of scale functions is given for positive self-similar Markov processes (pssMp) with one-sided jumps. The scale functions express as convolution series of the usual scale functions associated with spectrally one-sided Lévy processes that underly the pssMp through the Lamperti transform. This theory is then brought to bear on solving the spatio-temporal: (i) two-sided exit problem; (ii) joint first passage problem upwards for the the pssMp and its multiplicative drawdown (resp. drawup) in the spectrally negative (resp. positive) case.
We consider the one-sided exit problem for (fractionally) integrated random walks and Lévy processes. We prove that the rate of decrease of the non-exit probability -- the so-called survival exponent -- is universal in this class of processes. In particular, the survival exponent can be inferred from the (fractionally) integrated Brownian motion. This, in particular, extends Sinai's result on the survival exponent for the integrated simple random walk to general random walks with some finite exponential moment. Further, we prove existence and monotonicity of the survival exponent of fractional…
For a spectrally positive strictly stable process with index in (1,2), the paper obtains i) the density of the time when the process makes first exit from an interval by hitting the interval's lower end point before jumping over its upper end point, and ii) the joint distribution of the time, the undershoot, and the jump of the process when it makes first exit the other way around. For i), the density of the time of first exit is expressed as an infinite sum of functions, each the product of a polynomial and an exponential function, with all coefficients determined by the roots of a Mittag-Lef…
We consider exit problems for general Lévy processes, where the first passage over a threshold is detected either immediately or at an epoch of an independent homogeneous Poisson process. It is shown that the two corresponding one-sided problems are related through a surprisingly simple identity. Moreover, we identify a simple link between two-sided exit problems with one continuous and one Poisson exit. Finally, Poisson exit of a reflected process is connected to the continuous exit of a process reflected at Poisson epochs, and a link between some Parisian type exit problems is established. W…
We prove an estimate for the probability that a simple random walk in a simply connected subset A of Z^2 starting on the boundary exits A at another specified boundary point. The estimates are uniform over all domains of a given inradius. We apply these estimates to prove a conjecture of S. Fomin in 2001 concerning a relationship between crossing probabilities of loop-erased random walk and Brownian motion.
We revisit a result of Uchiyama (1980): given that a certain integral test is satisfied, the rate of the probability that Brownian motion remains below the moving boundary $f$ is asymptotically the same as for the constant boundary. The integral test for $f$ is also necessary in some sense. After Uchiyama's result, a number of different proofs appeared simplifying the original arguments, which strongly rely on some known identities for Brownian motion. In particular, Novikov (1996) gives an elementary proof in the case of an increasing boundary. Here, we provide an elementary, half-page proof …
We present a multiscale analysis for the exit measures from large balls in Z^d, d\geq 3, of random walks in certain i.i.d. random environments which are small perturbations of the fixed environment corresponding to simple random walk. Our main assumption is an isotropy assumption on the law of the environment, introduced by Bricmont and Kupianien. The analysis is based on propagating estimates on the variational distance between the exit measure and that of simple random walk, in addition to estimates on the variational distance between smoothed versions of these quantities.
In order to approximate the exit time of a one-dimensional diffusion process, we propose an algorithm based on a random walk. Such an algorithm so-called Walk on Moving Spheres was already introduced in the Brownian context. The aim is therefore to generalize this numerical approach to the Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process and to describe the efficiency of the method.
Let $S^{1},S^{2}$ be independent simple random walks in $\mathbb{Z}^{d}$ ($d=2,3$) started at the origin. We construct two-sided random walk paths conditioned that $S^{1}[0,\infty) \cap S^{2}[1, \infty) = \emptyset$.
Let $N$ be a positive integer, $c$ be a positive constant and $(U_n)_{n\ge 1}$ be a sequence of independent identically distributed pseudo-random variables. We assume that the $U_n$'s take their values in the discrete set $\{-N,-N+1,...,N-1,N\}$ and that their common pseudo-distribution is characterized by the \textit{(positive or negative) real} numbers \[\mathbb{P}\{U_n=k\}=δ_{k0}+(-1)^{k-1} c\binom{2N}{k+N}\] for any $k\in\{-N,-N+1,...,N-1,N\}$. Let us finally introduce $(S_n)_{n\ge 0}$ the associated pseudo-random walk defined on $\mathbb{Z}$ by $S_0=0$ and $S_n=\sum_{j=1}^n U_j$ for $n\ge…
We consider a centered random walk with finite variance and investigate the asymptotic behaviour of the probability that the area under this walk remains positive up to a large time $n$. Assuming that the moment of order $2+δ$ is finite, we show that the exact asymptotics for this probability are $n^{-1/4}$. To show these asymptotics we develop a discrete potential theory for the integrated random walk.
The loop-erased random walk (LERW) in $ \Z^d, d \geq 2$, is obtained by erasing loops chronologically from simple random walk. In this paper we show the existence of the two-sided LERW which can be considered as the distribution of the LERW as seen by a point in the "middle" of the path.
We consider random walk on dynamical percolation on the discrete torus $\mathbb{Z}_n^d$. In previous work, mixing times of this process for $p<p_c(\mathbb{Z}^d)$ were obtained in the annealed setting where one averages over the dynamical percolation environment. Here we study exit times in the quenched setting, where we condition on a typical dynamical percolation environment. We obtain an upper bound for all $p$ which for $p<p_c$ matches the known lower bound.
We consider random walks in Dirichlet environment, introduced by Enriquez and Sabot in 2006. As this distribution on environments is not uniformly elliptic, the annealed integrability of exit times out of a given finite subset is a non-trivial property. We provide here an explicit equivalent condition for this integrability to happen, on general directed graphs. Such integrability problems arise for instance from the definition of Kalikow auxiliary random walk. Using our condition, we prove a refined version of the ballisticity criterion given by Enriquez and Sabot.
For a spectrally one-sided Lévy process, we extend various two-sided exit identities to the situation when the process is only observed at arrival epochs of an independent Poisson process. In addition, we consider exit problems of this type for processes reflected either from above or from below. The resulting Laplace transforms of the main quantities of interest are in terms of scale functions and turn out to be simple analogues of the classical formulas.
We study exit laws from large balls in $\mathbb{Z}^d$, $d\geq3$, of random walks in an i.i.d. random environment that is a small perturbation of the environment corresponding to simple random walk. Under a centering condition on the measure governing the environment, we prove that the exit laws are close to those of a symmetric random walk, which we identify as a perturbed simple random walk. We obtain bounds on total variation distances as well as local results comparing exit probabilities on boundary segments. As an application, we prove transience of the random walks in random environment. …
In a recent paper, K. Raschel and R. Garbit proved that the exponential decreasing rate of the probability that a random walk (with all exponential moments) stays in a $d$-dimensional orthant is given by the minimum on this orthant of the Laplace transform of the random walk increments, as soon as this minimum exists. In other cases, the random walk is "badly oriented," and the exponential rate may depend on the starting point $x$. We prove here that this rate is nevertheless asymptotically equal to the infimum of the Laplace transform, as some selected coordinates of $x$ tend to infinity.
We describe the full exit boundary of random walks on homogeneous trees, in particular, on the free groups. This model exhibits a phase transition, namely, the family of Markov measures under study loses ergodicity as a parameter of the random walk changes. The problem under consideration is a special case of the problem of describing the invariant (central) measures on branching graphs, which covers a number of problems in combinatorics, representation theory, probability and was fully stated in a series of recent papers by the first author \cite{V1,V2,V3}. On the other hand, in the context o…
Let $X = (X_1, X_2)$ be a 2-dimensional random variable and $X(n), n \in \mathbb{N}$ a sequence of i.i.d. copies of $X$. The associated random walk is $S(n)= X(1) + \cdots +X(n)$. The corresponding absorbed-reflected walk $W(n), n \in \mathbb{N}$ in the first quadrant is given by $W(0) = x \in \mathbb{R}_+^2$ and $W(n) = \max \{ 0, W(n-1) - X(n) \}$, where the maximum is taken coordinate-wise. This is often called the Lindley process and models the waiting times in a two-server queue. We characterize recurrence of this process, assuming suitable, rather mild moment conditions on $X$. It turns …
The infinite two-sided loop-erased random walk (LERW) is a measure on infinite self-avoiding walks that can be viewed as giving the law of the `middle part' of an infinite LERW loop going through 0 and infinity. In this note we derive expressions for transition probabilities for this model in dimensions two and up. In the plane, the formula can be further expressed in terms of a Laplacian with signed weights acting on certain discrete harmonic functions at the tips of the walk, and taking a determinant. The discrete harmonic functions are closely related to a discrete version of the complex sq…
In this paper we introduce a new method for the simulation of the exit time and position of a $δ$-dimensional Brownian motion from a domain. The main interest of our method is that it avoids splitting time schemes as well as inversion of complicated series. The idea is to use the connexion between the $δ$-dimensional Bessel process and the $δ$-dimensional Brownian motion thanks to an explicit Bessel hitting time distribution associated with a particular curved boundary. This allows to build a fast and accurate numerical scheme for approximating the hitting time. Numerical comparisons with exis…
We consider the scaling behavior of the range and $p$-multiple range, that is the number of points visited and the number of points visited exactly $p\geq 1$ times, of simple random walk on ${\mathbb Z}^d$, for dimensions $d\geq 2$, up to time of exit from a domain $D_N$ of the form $D_N = ND$ where $D\subset {\mathbb R}^d$, as $N\uparrow\infty$. Recent papers have discussed connections of the range and related statistics with the Gaussian free field, identifying in particular that the distributional scaling limit for the range, in the case $D$ is a cube in $d\geq 3$, is proportional to the ex…
Let $σ$ be a permutation of $\{0,\ldots,n\}$. We consider the Markov chain $X$ which jumps from $k\neq 0,n$ to $σ(k+1)$ or $σ(k-1)$, equally likely. When $X$ is at 0 it jumps to either $σ(0)$ or $σ(1)$ equally likely, and when $X$ is at $n$ it jumps to either $σ(n)$ or $σ(n-1)$, equally likely. We show that the identity permutation maximizes the expected hitting time of n, when the walk starts at 0. More generally, we prove that the hitting time of a random walk on a strongly connected $d$-directed graph is maximized when the graph is the line $[0,n]\cap\Z$ with $d-2$ self-loops at every verte…
This paper provides well-posedness results and stochastic representations for the solutions to equations involving both the right- and the left-sided generalized operators of Caputo type. As a special case, these results show the interplay between two-sided fractional differential equations and two-sided exit problems for certain Lévy processes.
This paper explores the mixing time of the random transposition walk on permutations with one-sided interval restrictions. In particular, we're interested in the notion of cutoff, a phenomenon which occurs when mixing occurs in a window of order smaller than the mixing time. One of the main tools of the paper is the diagonalization obtained by Hanlon; the use of the spectral information is inspired by the famous paper of Diaconis and Shahshahani on the mixing time of the random transposition walk on the entire symmetric group. The diagonalization allows us to prove chi-squared cutoff for a bro…
In this paper we study the mean of the first exit time from a bounded interval of various Lévy processes. We establish sharp two-sided estimates of the mean for Lévy processes under certain condition on their characteristic exponents. We also study the cumulative distribution function of the supremum and infimum processes. Finally, we establish integral conditions that assure that the renewal function of the ladder height process is comparable with the linear one.
In this thesis we introduce a new type of card shuffle called the one-sided transposition shuffle. At each step a card is chosen uniformly from the pack and then transposed with another card chosen uniformly from below it. This defines a random walk on the symmetric group generated by a distribution which is non-constant on the conjugacy class of transpositions. Nevertheless, we provide an explicit formula for all eigenvalues of the shuffle by demonstrating a useful correspondence between eigenvalues and standard Young tableaux. This allows us to prove the existence of a total-variation cutoff…
We investigate harmonic functions and the convergence of the sequence of ratios $(P_x(τ_\vartheta {>} n)/P_e(τ_\vartheta {>} n))$ for a random walk on a countable group killed up on the time $τ_\vartheta$ of the first exit from some semi-group with an identity element $e$. Several results of classical renewal theory for one dimensional random walk killed at the first exit from the positive half-line are extended to a multi-dimensional setting. For this purpose, an analogue of the ladder height process and the corresponding renewal function $V$ are introduced. The results are applied to multidi…
We study Markov chains on $\mathbb Z^m$, $m\geq 2$, that behave like a standard symmetric random walk outside of the hyperplane (membrane) $H=\{0\}\times \mathbb Z^{m-1}$. The transition probabilities on the membrane $H$ are periodic and also depend on the incoming direction to $H$, what makes the membrane $H$ two-sided. Moreover, sliding along the membrane is allowed. We show that the natural scaling limit of such Markov chains is a $m$-dimensional diffusion whose first coordinate is a skew Brownian motion and the other $m-1$ coordinates is a Brownian motion with a singular drift controlled b…
We investigate Martin boundary for a non-centered random walk on ${\mathbb Z}^d$ killed up on the time $τ_\vartheta$ of the first exit from a convex cone with a vertex at $0$. The approach combines large deviation estimates, the ratio limite theorem and the ladder height process. The results are applied to identify the Martin boundary for a random walk killed upon the first exit from a convex cone having $C^1$ boundary.
We compute the exponential decay of the probability that a given multi-dimensional random walk stays in a convex cone up to time $n$, as $n$ goes to infinity. We show that the latter equals the minimum, on the dual cone, of the Laplace transform of the random walk increments. As an example, our results find applications in the counting of walks in orthants, a classical domain in enumerative combinatorics.
For spectrally negative Lévy processes, we prove several fluctuation results involving a general draw-down time, which is a downward exit time from a dynamic level that depends on the running maximum of the process. In particular, we find expressions of the Laplace transforms for the two-sided exit problems involving the draw-down time. We also find the Laplace transforms for the hitting time and creeping time over the running-maximum related draw-down level, respectively, and obtain an expression for a draw-down associated potential measure. The results are expressed in terms of scale functio…
Let $F$ be a distribution function on the integer lattice $\mathbb{Z}$ and $S=(S_n)$ the random walk with step distribution $F$. Suppose $S$ is oscillatory and denote by $U_{\rm a}(x)$ and $u_{\rm a}(x)$ the renewal function and sequence, respectively, of the strictly ascending ladder height process associated with $S$. Putting $A(x) =\int_0^x [1-F(t)-F(-t)] dt$, $H(x)=1-F(x)+F(-x)$ we suppose $$A(x)/\big(xH(x)\big) \to -\infty \quad (x\to\infty).$$ Under some additional regularity condition on the positive tail of $F$, we show that $$u_{\rm a}(x) \sim U_{\rm a}(x)[1-F(x)]/|A(x)|$$ as $x\to\in…
By appealing to renewal theory we determine the equations that the mean exit time of a continuous-time random walk with drift satisfies both when the present coincides with a jump instant or when it does not. Particular attention is paid to the corrections ensuing from the non-Markovian nature of the process. We show that when drift and jumps have the same sign the relevant integral equations can be solved in closed form. The case when holding times have the classical Erlang distribution is considered in detail.
Let $X$ be the constrained random walk on ${\mathbb Z}_+^d$ representing the queue lengths of a stable Jackson network and $x$ its initial position. Let $τ_n$ be the first time the sum of the components of $X$ equals $n$. $p_n \doteq P_x(τ_n < τ_0)$ is a key performance measure for the queueing system represented by $X$, stability implies $p_n\rightarrow 0$ exponentially. Currently the only analytic method available to approximate $p_n$ is large deviations analysis, which gives the exponential decay rate of $p_n$. Finer results are available via rare event simulation. The present article devel…
We consider open quantum walks on a graph, and consider the random variables defined as the passage time and number of visits to a given point of the graph. We study in particular the probability that the passage time is finite, the expectation of that passage time, and the expectation of the number of visits, and discuss the notion of recurrence for open quantum walks. We also study exit times and exit probabilities from a finite domain, and use them to solve Dirichlet problems and to determine harmonic measures. We consider in particular the case of irreducible open quantum walks. The result…
Let $(X_n)_{n\geq 0}$ be a reversible random walk on a graph $G$ satisfying an anchored isoperimetric inequality. We give upper bounds for exit time (and occupation time in transient case) by X of any set which contains the root. As an application, we consider random environments of $\Z^d$.
This paper presents necessary and sufficient conditions for on- and off-diagonal transition probability estimates for random walks on weighted graphs. On the integer lattice and on may fractal type graphs both the volume of a ball and the mean exit time from a ball is independent of the centre, uniform in space. Here the upper estimate is given without such restriction and two-sided estimate is given if uniformity in the space assumed only for the mean exit time.
Consider a random walk in an i.i.d. uniformly elliptic environment in dimensions larger than one. In 2002, Sznitman introduced for each $γ\in(0,1)$ the ballisticity condition $(T)_γ$ and the condition $(T')$ defined as the fulfillment of $(T)_γ$ for each $γ\in(0,1)$. Sznitman proved that $(T')$ implies a ballistic law of large numbers. Furthermore, he showed that for all $γ\in (0.5,1)$, $(T)_γ$ is equivalent to $(T')$. Recently, Berger has proved that in dimensions larger than three, for each $γ\in (0,1)$, condition $(T)_γ$ implies a ballistic law of large numbers. On the other hand, Drewitz a…
We study quantitative asymptotics of planar random walks that are spatially non-homogeneous but whose mean drifts have some regularity. Specifically, we study the first exit time $τ_α$ from a wedge with apex at the origin and interior half-angle $α$ by a non-homogeneous random walk on the square lattice with mean drift at $x$ of magnitude $O(1/|x|)$ as $|x| \to \infty$. This is the critical regime for the asymptotic behaviour: under mild conditions, a previous result of the authors (see arXiv:0910.1772) stated that $τ_α< \infty$ a.s. for any $α$ (while for a stronger drift field $τ_α$ is infin…
Sinai's random walk in random environment shows interesting patterns on the exponential time scale. We characterize the patterns that appear on infinitely many time scales after appropriate rescaling (a functional law of iterated logarithm). The curious rate function captures the difference between one-sided and two-sided behavior.
In the present paper, Ito formula and Tanaka formula for a special kind of symmetric random walk in the complex plain are studied. The random walk is called Parisian walk, and its local time is defined to be the number of exit from some regions.
Given a permutation sigma of the integers {-n,-n+1,...,n} we consider the Markov chain X_{sigma}, which jumps from k to sigma (k\pm 1) equally likely if k\neq -n,n. We prove that the expected hitting time of {-n,n} starting from any point is Theta(n) with high probability when sigma is a uniformly chosen permutation. We prove this by showing that with high probability, the digraph of allowed transitions is an Eulerian expander; we then utilize general estimates of hitting times in directed Eulerian expanders.
The range, local times, and periodicity of symmetric, weakly asymmetric and asymmetric random walks at the time of exit from a strip with $N$ locations are considered. Several results on asymptotic distributions are obtained.
We study a random walk on a complex of finitely many half-lines joined at a common origin; jumps are heavy-tailed and of two types, either one-sided (towards the origin) or two-sided (symmetric). Transmission between half-lines via the origin is governed by an irreducible Markov transition matrix, with associated stationary distribution $μ_k$. If $χ_k$ is $1$ for one-sided half-lines $k$ and $1/2$ for two-sided half-lines, and $α_k$ is the tail exponent of the jumps on half-line $k$, we show that the recurrence classification for the case where all $α_k χ_k \in (0,1)$ is determined by the sign…
It has been proved that the distribution of the point where the Smart Kinetic Walk (SKW) exits a domain converges in distribution to harmonic measure on the hexagonal lattice. For other lattices, it is believed that this result still holds, and there is good numerical evidence to support this conjecture. Here we examine the effect of the symmetry and asymmetry of the transition probability on each step of the SKW on the square lattice and test if the exit distribution converges in distribution to harmonic measure as well. From our simulations, the limiting exit distribution of the SKW with a n…
We study behavior in space and time of random walks in an i.i.d. random environment on Z^d, d>=3. It is assumed that the measure governing the environment is isotropic and concentrated on environments that are small perturbations of the fixed environment corresponding to simple random walk. We develop a revised and extended version of the paper of Bolthausen and Zeitouni (2007) on exit laws from large balls, which, as we hope, is easier to follow. Further, we study mean sojourn times in balls. This work is part of the author's PhD thesis under the supervision of Erwin Bolthausen. A generalizat…
In the literature on optimal stopping, the problem of maximizing the expected discounted reward over all stopping times has been explicitly solved for some special reward functions (including $(x^+)^ν$, $(e^x-K)^+$, $(K-e^{-x})^+$, $x\in\mathbb{R}$, $ν\in(0,\infty)$ and $K>0$) under general random walks in discrete time and Lévy processes in continuous time (subject to mild integrability conditions). All of such reward functions are continuous, increasing and logconcave while the corresponding optimal stopping times are of threshold type (i.e. the solutions are one-sided). In this paper, we sh…
We prove that a planar random walk with bounded increments and mean zero which is conditioned to stay in a cone converges weakly to the corresponding Brownian meander if and only if the tail distribution of the exit time from the cone is regularly varying. This condition is satisfied in many natural examples.
