A note on recurrent random walks

This paper is concerned with the limit theory of the extreme order statistics derived from random walks. We establish the joint convergence of the order statistics near the minimum of a random walk in terms of the Feller chains. Detailed descriptions of the limit process are given in the case of simple symmetric walks and Gaussian walks. Some open problems are also presented.

Let X_0=0, X_1, X_2, ..., be an aperiodic random walk generated by a sequence xi_1, xi_2, ..., of i.i.d. integer-valued random variables with common distribution p(.) having zero mean and finite variance. For an N-step trajectory X=(X_0,X_1,...,X_N) and a monotone convex function V: R^+ -> R^+ with V(0)=0, define V(X)= sum_{j=1}^{N-1} V(|X_j|). Further, let I_{N,+}^{a,b} be the set of all non-negative paths X compatible with the boundary conditions X_0=a, X_N=b. We discuss as...

In the first part of this thesis, we study a Markov chain on $\mathbb{R}_+ \times S$, where $\mathbb{R}_+$ is the non-negative real numbers and $S$ is a finite set, in which when the $\mathbb{R}_+$-coordinate is large, the $S$-coordinate of the process is approximately Markov with stationary distribution $\pi_i$ on $S$. Denoting by $\mu_i(x)$ the mean drift of the $\mathbb{R}_+$-coordinate of the process at $(x,i) \in \mathbb{R}_+ \times S$, we give an exhaustive recurrence c...

Consider a one dimensional simple random walk $X=(X_n)_{n\geq0}$. We form a new simple symmetric random walk $Y=(Y_n)_{n\geq0}$ by taking sums of products of the increments of $X$ and study the two-dimensional walk $(X,Y)=((X_n,Y_n))_{n\geq0}$. We show that it is recurrent and when suitably normalised converges to a two-dimensional Brownian motion with independent components; this independence occurs despite the functional dependence between the pre-limit processes. The proce...

For a random walk $S_n$ on $\mathbb{R}^d$ we study the asymptotic behaviour of the associated centre of mass process $G_n = n^{-1} \sum_{i=1}^n S_i$. For lattice distributions we give conditions for a local limit theorem to hold. We prove that if the increments of the walk have zero mean and finite second moment, $G_n$ is recurrent if $d=1$ and transient if $d \geq 2$. In the transient case we show that $G_n$ has diffusive rate of escape. These results extend work of Grill, w...

In recent years, there has been an interest in deriving certain important probabilistic results as consequences of deterministic ones; see for instance \cite{beig} and \cite{acc}. In this work, we continue on this path by deducing a well known equivalence between the speed of random walks on the integers and the growth of the size of their ranges. This result is an immediate consequence of the Kesten-Spitzer-Whitman theorem, and by appearances is probabilistic in nature, but ...

Consider the real Markov walk $S_n = X_1+ \dots+ X_n$ with increments $\left(X_n\right)_{n\geq 1}$ defined by a stochastic recursion starting at $X_0=x$. For a starting point $y>0$ denote by $\tau_y$ the exit time of the process $\left( y+S_n \right)_{n\geq 1}$ from the positive part of the real line. We investigate the asymptotic behaviour of the probability of the event $\tau_y \geq n$ and of the conditional law of $y+S_n$ given $\tau_y \geq n$ as $n \to +\infty$.

Let $S_n$ be a centered random walk with a finite variance, and define the new sequence $A_n:=\sum_{i=1}^n S_i$, which we call an integrated random walk. We are interested in the asymptotics of $$p_N:=P(\min_{1 \le k \le N} A_k \ge 0)$$ as $N \to \infty$. Sinai (1992) proved that $p_N \asymp N^{-1/4}$ if $S_n$ is a simple random walk. We show that $p_N \asymp N^{-1/4}$ for some other types of random walks that include double-sided exponential and double-sided geometric walks,...

Let $S_n =X_1+\cdots +X_n$ be an irreducible random walk (r.w.) on the one dimensional integer lattice with zero mean, infinite variance and i.i.d. increments $X_n$. We obtain an upper and lower bounds of the potential function, $a(x)$, of $S_n$ in the form $a(x)\asymp x/m(x)$ under a reasonable condition on the distribution of $X_n$; we especially show that as $x\to\infty$ $$a(x) \asymp \frac{x}{m_-(x)} \quad\mbox{and}\quad \frac{a(-x)}{a(x)} \to 0 \quad\;\;\mbox{if}\quad \l...

We study the distribution of the maximum $M$ of a random walk whose increments have a distribution with negative mean and belonging, for some $\gamma>0$, to a subclass of the class $\mathcal{S}_\gamma$--see, for example, Chover, Ney, and Wainger (1973). For this subclass we give a probabilistic derivation of the asymptotic tail distribution of $M$, and show that extreme values of $M$ are in general attained through some single large increment in the random walk near the begin...