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 $x\to\infty$ and uniformly for $0\leq x\leq R\in \mathbb{Z}$, as $R\to\infty$ $$P [ S\; \mbox{leaves $[0,R]$ on its upper side}\, |\, S_0=x] \, \sim\, c^{-1}A(x)u_{\rm a}(x), $$ where $c= \sum_{n=1}^\infty P[S_{n}>S_0;\, S_k < S_0$ for $0<k<n]$ and the regularity condition is satisfied at least if $S$ is recurrent, $\limsup [1-F(x)]/F(-x)<1$, and $x[1-F(x)]/L(x) $ ($x\geq 1$) is bounded away from zero and infinity for some slowly varying function $L$. We also give some asymptotic estimates of the probability that $S$ visits $R$ before entering the negative half-line for asymptotically stable walks and obtain asymptotic behaviour of the probability that $R$ is ever hit by $S$ conditioned to avoid the negative half-line forever.
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.
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 $S=(S_n)$ 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 suffici…
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…
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…
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.
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…
