A note on recurrent random walks

Let $(Y_n)$ be a sequence of i.i.d. $\mathbb Z$-valued random variables with law $\mu$. The reflected random walk $(X_n)$ is defined recursively by $X_0=x \in \mathbb N_0, X_{n+1}=|X_n+Y_{n+1}|$. Under mild hypotheses on the law $\mu$, it is proved that, for any $ y \in \mathbb N_0$, as $n \to +\infty$, one gets $\mathbb P_x[X_n=y]\sim C_{x, y} R^{-n} n^{-3/2}$ when $\sum_{k\in \mathbb Z} k\mu(k) >0$ and $\mathbb P_x[X_n=y]\sim C_{y} n^{-1/2}$ when $\sum_{k\in \mathbb Z} k\mu...

We consider a real random walk S_n = X_1 + ... + X_n attracted (without centering) to the normal law: this means that for a suitable norming sequence a_n we have the weak convergence S_n / a_n --> f(x) dx, where f(x) is the standard normal density (this happens in particular by the CLT when X_1 has zero mean and finite variance \sigma^2, with a_n = \sigma \sqrt{n}). A local refinement of this convergence is provided by Gnedenko's and Stone's Local Limit Theorems, in the latti...

The paper is concerned with a new approach for the recurrence property of the oscillating process on $\mathbb{Z}$ in Kemperman's sense. In the case when the random walk is ascending on $\mathbb{Z}^-$ and descending on $\mathbb{Z}^+$, we determine the invariant measure of the embedded process of successive crossing times and then prove a necessary and sufficient condition for recurrence. Finally, we make use of this result to show that the general oscillating process is recurr...

We establish recurrence criteria for sums of independent random variables which take values in Euclidean lattices of varying dimension. In particular, we describe transient inhomogenous random walks in the plane which interlace two symmetric step distributions of bounded support.

Consider a nearest-neighbor random walk with certain asymptotically zero drift on the positive half line. Let $M$ be the maximum of an excursion starting from $1$ and ending at $0.$ We study the distribution of $M$ and characterize its asymptotics, which is quite different from those of simple random walks.

In this paper, we are interested in the asymptotic behaviour of the sequence of processes $(W_n(s,t))_{s,t\in[0,1]}$ with \begin{equation*} W_n(s,t):=\sum_{k=1}^{\lfloor nt\rfloor}\big(1_{\{\xi_{S_k}\leq s\}}-s\big) \end{equation*} where $(\xi_x, x\in\mathbb{Z}^d)$ is a sequence of independent random variables uniformly distributed on $[0,1]$ and $(S_n)_{n\in\mathbb N}$ is a random walk evolving in $\mathbb{Z}^d$, independent of the $\xi$'s. In Wendler (2016), the case where ...

We consider the extreme value statistics of centrally-biased random walks with asymptotically-zero drift in the ergodic regime. We fully characterize the asymptotic distribution of the maximum for this class of Markov chains lacking translational invariance, with a particular emphasis on the relation between the time scaling of the expected value of the maximum and the stationary distribution of the process.

This paper explores a conditional Gibbs theorem for a random walkinduced by i.i.d. (X_{1},..,X_{n}) conditioned on an extreme deviation of its sum (S_{1}^{n}=na_{n}) or (S_{1}^{n}>na_{n}) where a_{n}\rightarrow\infty. It is proved that when the summands have light tails with some additional regulatity property, then the asymptotic conditional distribution of X_{1} can be approximated in variation norm by the tilted distribution at point a_{n}, extending therefore the classica...

We consider non-homogeneous random walks on the positive quadrant in two dimensions. In the 1960's the following question was asked: is it true if such a random walk $X$ is recurrent and $Y$ is another random walk that at every point is more likely to go down and more likely to go left than $Y$, then $Y$ is also recurrent? We provide an example showing that the answer is negative. We also show that if either the random walk $X$ or $Y$ is sufficiently homogeneous then the an...

This paper considers 1-dimensional generalized random walks in random scenery. That is, the steps of the walk are generated by an arbitrary stationary process, and also the scenery is a priori arbitrary stationary. Under an ergodicity condition--which is satisfied in the classical case--a simple proof of the distinguishability of periodic sceneries is given.