This graduate-level text and reference in probability, with numerous applications to several fields of science, presents nonmeasure-theoretic introduction to theory of Markov processes. The work also covers mathematical models based on the theory, employed in various applied fields. Prerequisites are a knowledge of elementary probability theory, mathematical statistics, and analysis. Appendixes. Bibliographies. 1960 edition.
This book provides a rigorous but elementary introduction to the theory of Markov Processes on a countable state space. It should be accessible to students with a solid undergraduate background in mathematics, including students from engineering, economics, physics, and biology. Topics covered are: Doeblin's theory, general ergodic properties, and continuous time processes. Applications are dispersed throughout the book. In addition, a whole chapter is devoted to reversible processes and the use of their associated Dirichlet forms to estimate the rate of convergence to equilibrium. These results are then applied to the analysis of the Metropolis (a.k.a simulated annealing) algorithm. The corrected and enlarged 2nd edition contains a new chapter in which the author develops computational methods for Markov chains on a finite state space. Most intriguing is the section with a new technique for computing stationary measures, which is applied to derivations of Wilson's algorithm and Kirchoff's formula for spanning trees in a connected graph.
This text on stochastic processes and their applications is based on a set of lectures given during the past several years at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). It is an introductory graduate course designed for classroom purposes. Its objective is to provide graduate students of statistics with an overview of some basic methods and techniques in the theory of stochastic processes. The only prerequisites are some rudiments of measure and integration theory and an intermediate course in probability theory. There are more than 50 examples and applications and 243 problems and complements which appear at the end of each chapter. The book consists of 10 chapters. Basic concepts and definitions are pro vided in Chapter 1. This chapter also contains a number of motivating ex amples and applications illustrating the practical use of the concepts. The last five sections are devoted to topics such as separability, continuity, and measurability of random processes, which are discussed in some detail. The concept of a simple point process on R+ is introduced in Chapter 2. Using the coupling inequality and Le Cam's lemma, it is shown that if its counting function is stochastically continuous and has independent increments, the point process is Poisson. When the counting function is Markovian, the sequence of arrival times is also a Markov process. Some related topics such as independent thinning and marked point processes are also discussed. In the final section, an application of these results to flood modeling is presented.
A self-contained treatment of finite Markov chains and processes, this text covers both theory and applications. Author Marius Iosifescu, vice president of the Romanian Academy and director of its Center for Mathematical Statistics, begins with a review of relevant aspects of probability theory and linear algebra. Experienced readers may start with the second chapter, a treatment of fundamental concepts of homogeneous finite Markov chain theory that offers examples of applicable models. The text advances to studies of two basic types of homogeneous finite Markov chains: absorbing and ergodic chains. A complete study of the general properties of homogeneous chains follows. Succeeding chapters examine the fundamental role of homogeneous infinite Markov chains in mathematical modeling employed in the fields of psychology and genetics; the basics of nonhomogeneous finite Markov chain theory; and a study of Markovian dependence in continuous time, which constitutes an elementary introduction to the study of continuous parameter stochastic processes.
The objective of this book is to introduce the elements of stochastic processes in a rather concise manner where we present the two most important parts — Markov chains and stochastic analysis. The readers are led directly to the core of the main topics to be treated in the context. Further details and additional materials are left to a section containing abundant exercises for further reading and studying.In the part on Markov chains, the focus is on the ergodicity. By using the minimal nonnegative solution method, we deal with the recurrence and various types of ergodicity. This is done step by step, from finite state spaces to denumerable state spaces, and from discrete time to continuous time. The methods of proofs adopt modern techniques, such as coupling and duality methods. Some very new results are included, such as the estimate of the spectral gap. The structure and proofs in the first part are rather different from other existing textbooks on Markov chains.In the part on stochastic analysis, we cover the martingale theory and Brownian motions, the stochastic integral and stochastic differential equations with emphasis on one dimension, and the multidimensional stochastic integral and stochastic equation based on semimartingales. We introduce three important topics here: the Feynman-Kac formula, random time transform and Girsanov transform. As an essential application of the probability theory in classical mathematics, we also deal with the famous Brunn-Minkowski inequality in convex geometry.This book also features modern probability theory that is used in different fields, such as MCMC, or even deterministic areas: convex geometry and number theory. It provides a new and direct routine for students going through the classical Markov chains to the modern stochastic analysis.
Markov processes are among the most important stochastic processes for both theory and applications. This book develops the general theory of these processes, and applies this theory to various special examples.
Kiyosi Itô's greatest contribution to probability theory may be his introduction of stochastic differential equations to explain the Kolmogorov-Feller theory of Markov processes. Starting with the geometric ideas that guided him, this book gives an account of Itô's program. The modern theory of Markov processes was initiated by A. N. Kolmogorov. However, Kolmogorov's approach was too analytic to reveal the probabilistic foundations on which it rests. In particular, it hides the central role played by the simplest Markov processes: those with independent, identically distributed increments. To remedy this defect, Itô interpreted Kolmogorov's famous forward equation as an equation that describes the integral curve of a vector field on the space of probability measures. Thus, in order to show how Itô's thinking leads to his theory of stochastic integral equations, Stroock begins with an account of integral curves on the space of probability measures and then arrives at stochastic integral equations when he moves to a pathspace setting. In the first half of the book, everything is done in the context of general independent increment processes and without explicit use of Itô's stochastic integral calculus. In the second half, the author provides a systematic development of Itô's theory of stochastic integration: first for Brownian motion and then for continuous martingales. The final chapter presents Stratonovich's variation on Itô's theme and ends with an application to the characterization of the paths on which a diffusion is supported. The book should be accessible to readers who have mastered the essentials of modern probability theory and should provide such readers with a reasonably thorough introduction to continuous-time, stochastic processes.
An extension problem (often called a boundary problem) of Markov processes has been studied, particularly in the case of one-dimensional diffusion processes, by W. Feller, K. Itô, and H. P. McKean, among others. In this book, Itô discussed a case of a general Markov process with state space S and a specified point a ∈ S called a boundary. The problem is to obtain all possible recurrent extensions of a given minimal process (i.e., the process on S \ {a} which is absorbed on reaching the boundary a). The study in this lecture is restricted to a simpler case of the boundary a being a discontinuous entrance point, leaving a more general case of a continuous entrance point to future works. He established a one-to-one correspondence between a recurrent extension and a pair of a positive measure k(db) on S \ {a} (called the jumping-in measure and a non-negative number m
This book provides an undergraduate-level introduction to discrete and continuous-time Markov chains and their applications, with a particular focus on the first step analysis technique and its applications to average hitting times and ruin probabilities. It also discusses classical topics such as recurrence and transience, stationary and limiting distributions, as well as branching processes. It first examines in detail two important examples (gambling processes and random walks) before presenting the general theory itself in the subsequent chapters. It also provides an introduction to discrete-time martingales and their relation to ruin probabilities and mean exit times, together with a chapter on spatial Poisson processes. The concepts presented are illustrated by examples, 138 exercises and 9 problems with their solutions.
