[Pas] Probabilty Abstracts 87b

pas at www.economia.unimi.it pas at www.economia.unimi.it
Fri Jul 1 22:56:28 CEST 2005


                                                                         
                          July 1, 2005
                                                                         
                          Letter 87b


Apologizes for this second mail.
Previous PAS Letter 87 contained abstracts from Letter 86.

stefano iacus





Probability Abstract Service



---------------------------------------------------------------

3374. FOKKER-PLANCK-KOLMOGOROV EQUATION FOR STOCHASTIC DIFFERENTIAL  
EQUATIONS  WITH BOUNDARY HITTING RESETS

Julien Bect and  Hana Baili and  Gilles Fleury

We consider a Markov process on a Riemannian manifold, which solves a
stochastic differential equation in the interior of the manifold and  
jumps
according to a deterministic reset map when it reaches the boundary.  
We derive
a partial differential equation for the probability density function,  
involving
a non-local boundary condition which accounts for the jumping  
behaviour of the
process. This is a generalisation of the usual Fokker-Planck-Kolmogorov
equation for diffusion processes. The result is illustrated with an  
example in
the field of stochastic hybrid systems.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0504583

---------------------------------------------------------------

3375. SKEW CONVOLUTION SEMIGROUPS AND AFFINE MARKOV PROCESSES

D.A. Dawson (Carleton University) and  Zenghu Li (Beijing Normal   
University)

A general affine Markov semigroup is formulated as the convolution of a
homogeneous one with a skew convolution semigroup. We provide some  
sufficient
conditions for the regularities of the homogeneous affine semigroup  
and the
skew convolution semigroup. The corresponding affine Markov process is
constructed as the strong solution of a system of stochastic  
equations with
non-Lipschitz coefficients and Poisson-type integrals over some  
random sets.
Based on this characterization, it is proved that the affine process  
arises
naturally in a limit theorem for the difference of a pair of reactant  
processes
in a catalytic branching system with immigration.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0505444

---------------------------------------------------------------

3376. A PROBABILISTIC REPRESENTATION FOR THE SOLUTIONS TO SOME NON- 
LINEAR PDES  USING PRUNED BRANCHING TREES

D. Bloemker and  M. Romito and  R. Tribe

The solutions to a large class of semi-linear parabolic PDEs are  
given in
terms of expectations of suitable functionals of a tree of branching  
particles.
A sufficient, and in some cases necessary, condition is given for the
integrability of the stochastic representation, using a companion  
scalar PDE.
   In cases where the representation fails to be integrable a  
sequence of pruned
trees is constructed, producing a approximate stochastic  
representations that
in some cases converge, globally in time, to the solution of the  
original PDE.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0505449

---------------------------------------------------------------

3377. A LARGE-DEVIATIONS ANALYSIS OF THE GI/GI/1 SRPT QUEUE

Misja Nuyens and  Bert Zwart

We consider a GI/GI/1 queue with the shortest remaining processing time
discipline (SRPT) and light-tailed service times. Our interest is  
focused on
the tail behavior of the sojourn-time distribution. We obtain a general
expression for its large-deviations decay rate. The value of this  
decay rate
critically depends on whether there is mass in the endpoint of the  
service-time
distribution or not. An auxiliary priority queue, for which we obtain  
some new
results, plays an important role in our analysis. We apply our SRPT- 
results to
compare SRPT with FIFO from a large-deviations point of view.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0505450

---------------------------------------------------------------

3378. HOW BADLY ARE THE BURHOLDER-DAVIS-GUNDY INEQUALITIES AFFECTED  
BY  ARBITRARY RANDOM TIMES?

Ashkan Nikeghbali

This note deals with the question: what remains of the Burkholder- 
Davis-Gundy
inequalities when stopping times $T$ are replaced by arbitrary random  
times
$\rho $? We prove that these inequalities still hold when $T$ is a
pseudo-stopping time and never holds for ends of predictable sets.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0505483

---------------------------------------------------------------

3379. THE GHIRLANDA-GUERRA IDENTITIES

Pierluigi Contucci and  Cristian Giardina'

If the variance of a Gaussian spin-glass Hamiltonian grows like the  
volume
the model fulfills the Ghirlanda-Guerra identities in terms of the  
normalized
Hamiltonian covariance.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math-ph/0505055

---------------------------------------------------------------

3380. POSITIVE PROCESSES

V.I.Bakhtin

In the present paper we introduce positive flows and processes, which
generalize the ordinary dynamical systems and stochastic processes.  
We develop
a branch of theory of positive operators based on the concepts of  
phase and
positive algebras, the spectral potential, the dual entropy, equilibrium
measures, the action functional, sensitive states, empirical measures  
and prove
within it the law of large numbers with respect to the sensitive  
states and
calculate asymptotics for probabilities of large deviations in terms  
of the
action functional.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.DS/0505446

---------------------------------------------------------------

3381. A LARGE CLOSED QUEUEING NETWORK CONTAINING TWO TYPES OF NODE  
AND  MULTIPLE CUSTOMER CLASSES: ONE BOTTLENECK STATION

Vyacheslav M. Abramov

The paper studies a closed queueing network containing two types of  
node. The
first type (server station) is an infinite server queueing system,  
and the
second type (client station) is a single server queueing system with  
autonomous
service, i.e. every client station serves customers (units) only at  
random
instants generated by strictly stationary and ergodic sequence of random
variables. It is assumed that there are $r$ server stations. At the  
initial
time moment all units are distributed in the server stations, and the  
$i$th
server station contains $N_i$ units, $i=1,2,...,r$, where all the  
values $N_i$
are large numbers of the same order. The total number of client  
stations is
equal to $k$. The expected times between departures in the client  
stations are
small values of the order $O(N^{-1})$ ~ $(N=N_1+N_2+...+N_r)$. After  
service
completion in the $i$th server station a unit is transmitted to the $j 
$th
client station with probability $p_{i,j}$ ~ ($j=1,2,...,k$), and  
being served
in the $j$th client station the unit returns to the $i$th server  
station. Under
the assumption that only one of the client stations is a bottleneck  
node, i.e.
the expected number of arrivals per time unit to the node is greater  
than the
expected number of departures from that node, the paper derives the
representation for non-stationary queue-length distributions in non- 
bottleneck
client stations.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0505489

---------------------------------------------------------------

3382. CONCENTRATION FOR INDEPENDENT RANDOM VARIABLES WITH HEAVY TAILS

Franck Barthe (LSProba) and  Patrick Cattiaux (MODAL'X and  CMAP)  
and  Cyril  Roberto (LAMA)

If a random variable is not exponentially integrable, it is known  
that no
concentration inequality holds for an infinite sequence of  
independent copies.
Under mild conditions, we establish concentration inequalities for  
finite
sequences of $n$ independent copies, with good dependence in $n$.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0505492

---------------------------------------------------------------

3383. A CONTINUOUS-DISCONTINUOUS SECOND-ORDER TRANSITION IN THE  
SATISFIABILITY  OF RANDOM HORN-SAT FORMULAS

Cristopher Moore and  Gabriel Istrate and  Demetrios Demopoulos and   
and Moshe Y.  Vardi

We compute the probability of satisfiability of a class of random  
Horn-SAT
formulae, motivated by a connection with the nonemptiness problem of  
finite
tree automata. In particular, when the maximum clause length is 3,  
this model
displays a curve in its parameter space along which the probability of
satisfiability is discontinuous, ending in a second-order phase  
transition
where it becomes continuous. This is the first case in which a phase  
transition
of this type has been rigorously established for a random constraint
satisfaction problem.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0505032

---------------------------------------------------------------

3384. SINAI'S CONDITION FOR REAL VALUED L\'{E}VY PROCESSES

Victor Rivero (MODAL'X)

We prove that the upward ladder height subordinator $H$ associated to  
a real
valued L\'{e}vy process $\xi$ has Laplace exponent $\phi$ that varies  
regularly
at $\infty$ (resp. at 0) if and only if the underlying L\'{e}vy  
process $\xi$
satisfies Sinai's condition at 0 (resp. at $\infty$). Sinai's  
condition for
real valued L\'{e}vy processes is the continuous time analogue of  
Sinai's
condition for random walks. We provide several criteria in terms of the
characteristics of $\xi$ to determine whether or not it satisfies  
Sinai's
condition. Some of these criteria are deduced from tail estimates of the
L\'{e}vy measure of $H,$ here obtained, and which are analogous to the
estimates of the tail distribution of the ladder height random  
variable of a
random walk which are due to Veraverbeke and Gr\"{u}bel


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0505495

---------------------------------------------------------------

3385. TRANSLATION-INVARIANT GENERALIZED TOPOLOGIES INDUCED BY  
PROBABILISTIC  NORMS

Bernardo Lafuerza-Guillen and Jose L. Rodriguez

In this paper we consider probabilistic normed spaces as defined by  
Alsina,
Sklar, and Schweizer, but equipped with non necessarily continuous  
triangle
functions. Such spaces endow a generalized topology that is
Fr\'echet-separable, translation-invariant and countably generated by  
radial
and circled 0-neighborhoods. Conversely, we show that such generalized
topologies are probabilistically normable.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.GN/0505484

---------------------------------------------------------------

3386. A CLASS OF REMARKABLE SUBMARTINGALES (I)

Ashkan Nikeghbali

In this paper, we consider the special class of positive local  
submartingales
$(X_{t})$ of the form: $X_{t}=N_{t}+A_{t}$, where the measure $(dA_ 
{t})$ is
carried by the set ${t: X_{t}=0}$. We show that many examples of  
stochastic
processes studied in the literature are in this class and propose a  
unified
approach based on martingale techniques to study them. In particular, we
establish some martingale characterizations for these processes and  
compute
explicitly some distributions involving the pair $(X_{t},A_{t})$. We  
also
associate with $X$ a solution to the Skorokhod's stopping problem for
probability measures on the positive half-line.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0505515

---------------------------------------------------------------

3387. PERFECTLY RANDOM SAMPLING OF TRUNCATED MULTINORMAL DISTRIBUTIONS

Pedro J. Fernandez and  Pablo A. Ferrari and  Sebastian Grynberg

A "coupling from the past" construction of the Gibbs sampler process  
is used
to perfectly simulate a random vector in a box B, a Cartesian product of
bounded intervals. An algorithm to sample vectors with multinormal  
distribution
truncated to B is implemented.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0505522

---------------------------------------------------------------

3388. A POINT PROCESS DESCRIBING THE COMPONENT SIZES IN THE CRITICAL  
WINDOW OF  THE RANDOM GRAPH EVOLUTION

Svante Janson and  Joel Spencer

We study a point process describing the asymptotic behavior of sizes  
of the
largest components of the random graph G(n,p) in the critical window
p=n^{-1}+lambda n^{-4/3}. In particular, we show that this point  
process has a
surprising rigidity. Fluctuations in the large values will be  
balanced by
opposite fluctuations in the small values such that the sum of the  
values
larger than a small epsilon is almost constant.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0505529

---------------------------------------------------------------

3389. SPECTRAL GAP ESTIMATES FOR INTERACTING PARTICLE SYSTEMS VIA A  
BAKRY &  EMERY-TYPE APPROACH

Anne-Severine Boudou and  Pietro Caputo and  Paolo Dai Pra and  
Gustavo Posta

We develop a general technique, based on the Bakry-Emery approach, to
estimate spectral gaps of a class of Markov operators. We apply this  
technique
to various interacting particle systems. In particular, we give a  
simple and
short proof of the diffusive scaling of the spectral gap of the  
Kawasaki model
at high temperature. Similar results are derived for Kawasaki-type  
dynamics in
the lattice without exclusion, and in the continuum. New estimates for
Glauber-type dynamics are also obtained.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0505533

---------------------------------------------------------------

3390. CONCENTRATION INEQUALITIES ON PRODUCT SPACES WITH APPLICATIONS  
TO MARKOV  PROCESSES

Gordon Blower and  Fran\c{c}ois Bolley (UMPA-ENSL)

For a stochastic process with state space some Polish space, this  
paper gives
sufficient conditions on the initial and conditional distributions  
for the
joint law to satisfy Gaussian concentration inequalities, transportation
inequalities and also logarithmic Sobolev inequalities in the case of  
the
Euclidean space. In several cases, the obtained constants are of  
optimal order
of growth with respect to the number of variables, or are independent  
of this
number. These results extend results known for mutually independent  
variables
to weakly dependent variables under Dobrushin-Shlosman type conditions.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0505536

---------------------------------------------------------------

3391. DE BRUIJN COVERING CODES FOR ROOTED HYPERGRAPHS

Joshua N. Cooper and  Fan Chung

What is the length of the shortest sequence $S$ of reals so that the  
set of
consecutive $n$-words in $S$ form a covering code for permutations on  
$\{1,2,
 >..., n\}$ of radius $R$ ? (The distance between two $n$-words is  
the number of
transpositions needed to have the same order type.) The above problem  
can be
viewed as a special case of finding a De Bruijn covering code for a  
rooted
hypergraph. Each edge of a rooted hypergraph contains a special  
vertex, called
the {\it root} of the edge, and each vertex is the root of a unique  
edge,
called its {\it ball}. A De Bruijn covering code is a subset of the  
roots such
that every vertex is in some edge containing a chosen root. Under  
some mild
conditions, we obtain an upper bound for the shortest length of a De  
Bruijn
covering code of a rooted hypergraph, a bound which is within a  
factor of $\log
n$ of the lower bound.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.CO/0505528

---------------------------------------------------------------

3392. RANDOM GROWTH MODELS WITH POLYGONAL SHAPES

Janko Gravner and  David Griffeath

We consider discrete time random perturbations of monotone cellular  
automata
(CA) in two dimensions. Under general conditions, we prove the  
existence of
half--space velocities, and then establish the validity of the Wulff
construction for asymptotic shapes arising from finite initial seeds.  
Such a
shape converges to the polygonal invariant shape of the corresponding
deterministic model as the perturbation decreases. In many cases, exact
stability is observed. That is, for small perturbations, the shapes  
of the
deterministic and random processes agree exactly. We give a complete
characterization of such cases, and show that they are prevalent among
threshold growth CA with box neighborhood. We also design a  
nontrivial family
of CA in which the shape is exactly computable for all values of its
probability parameter.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0505039

---------------------------------------------------------------

3393. STOCHASTIC DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS DRIVEN BY PURELY SPATIAL NOISE

S. V. Lototsky and  B. L. Rozovskii

Space-only noise is a natural random perturbation in equations  
without time
evolution. Even the simplest equations driven by this noise often do  
not have a
square-integrable solution and must be solved in special weighted  
spaces. The
Cameron-Martin version of the Wiener chaos decomposition is an  
effective tool
to study both stationary and evolution equations driven by space-only  
noise.
The paper presents the main results about solvability of such  
equations in
weighted Wiener chaos spaces and studies the long-time behavior of the
solutions of evolution equations with space-only noise.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0505551

---------------------------------------------------------------

3394. JACOBIANS AND RANK 1 PERTURBATIONS RELATING TO UNITARY  
HESSENBERG  MATRICES

Peter J. Forrester and Eric M. Rains

In a recent work Killip and Nenciu gave random recurrences for the
characteristic polynomials of certain unitary and real orthogonal upper
Hessenberg matrices. The corresponding eigenvalue p.d.f.'s are
beta-generalizations of the classical groups. Left open was the direct
calculation of certain Jacobians. We provide the sought direct  
calculation.
Furthermore, we show how a multiplicative rank 1 perturbation of the  
unitary
Hessenberg matrices provides a joint eigenvalue p.d.f generalizing  
the circular
beta-ensemble, and we show how this joint density is related to known
inter-relations between circular ensembles. Projecting the joint  
density onto
the real line leads to the derivation of a random three-term  
recurrence for
polynomials with zeros distributed according to the circular Jacobi
beta-ensemble.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0505552

---------------------------------------------------------------

3395. ON RANDOM MEASURES ON THE SPACE OF TRAJECTORIES AND STRONG AND  
WEAK  SOLUTIONS OF STOCHASTIC EQUATIONS

A. A. Dorogovtsev

The random measures on the space of continuous functions are considered.
Stationary random measures are described. The weak solutions of the  
stochastic
equations are substituted by the strong measure-valued solutions.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0505569

---------------------------------------------------------------

3396. ASYMPTOTIC BEHAVIOR OF THE NUMBER OF LOST MESSAGES

Vyacheslav M. Abramov

The goal of the paper is to study asymptotic behavior of the number  
of lost
messages. Long messages are assumed to be divided into a random  
number of
packets which are transmitted independently of one another. An error in
transmission of a packet results in the loss of the entire message.  
Messages
arrive to the $M/GI/1$ finite buffer model and can be lost in two  
cases as
either at least one of its packets is corrupted or the buffer is  
overflowed.
With the parameters of the system typical for models of information
transmission in real networks, we obtain theorems on asymptotic  
behavior of the
number of lost messages. We also study how the loss probability  
changes if
redundant packets are added. Our asymptotic analysis approach is  
based on
Tauberian theorems with remainder.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0505596

---------------------------------------------------------------

3397. ASYMPTOTIC ANALYSIS OF THE GI/M/1/N LOSS SYSTEM AS N INCREASES  
TO  INFINITY

Vyacheslav M. Abramov

This paper provides the asymptotic analysis of the loss probability  
in the
$GI/M/1/n$ queueing system as $n$ increases to infinity. The approach  
of this
paper is alternative to that of the recent papers of Choi and Kim  
[2000] and
Choi et al [2000] and based on application of modern Tauberian  
theorems with
remainder. This enables us to simplify the proofs of the results on  
asymptotic
behavior of the loss probability of the abovementioned paper of Choi  
and Kim
[2000] as well as to obtain some new results.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0505597

---------------------------------------------------------------

3398. STOCHASTIC GAMES WITH INFINITELY MANY INTERACTING AGENTS

Emilio De Santis and Carlo Marinelli

We introduce and study a class of infinite-horizon non-zero-sum
non-cooperative stochastic games with infinitely many interacting  
agents using
ideas of statistical mechanics. First we show, in the general case of
asymmetric interactions, the existence of a strategy that allows any  
player to
eliminate losses after a finite random time. In the special case of  
symmetric
interactions, we also prove that, as time goes to infinity, the game  
converges
to a Nash equilibrium. Moreover, assuming that all agents adopt the same
strategy, using arguments related to those leading to perfect simulation
algorithms, spatial mixing and ergodicity are proved. In turn,  
ergodicity
allows us to prove ``fixation'', i.e. that players will adopt a constant
strategy after a finite time. The resulting dynamics is related to
zero-temperature Glauber dynamics on random graphs of possibly  
infinite volume.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0505608

---------------------------------------------------------------

3399. THE STABILITY OF JOIN-THE-SHORTEST-QUEUE MODELS WITH GENERAL  
INPUT AND  OUTPUT PROCESSES

Vyacheslav M. Abramov

The paper establishes necessary and sufficient conditions for the  
stability
of different join-the-shortest-queue models including the load- 
balanced network
with general input and output processes. It is shown that the  
necessary and
sufficient condition for the stability of the load-balanced network  
is related
to the solution of the linear programming problem precisely  
formulated in the
paper. It is proved that if the minimum of the objective function of  
that
linear programming problem is less than 1, then the associated load- 
balanced
network is stable.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0505040

---------------------------------------------------------------

3400. LONG RANGE ACTION IN NETWORKS OF CHAOTIC ELEMENTS

Michael Blank and  Leonid Bunimovich

We show that under certain simple assumptions on the topology  
(structure) of
networks of strongly interacting chaotic elements a phenomenon of  
long range
action takes place, namely that the asymptotic (as time goes to  
infinity)
dynamics of an arbitrary large network is completely determined by  
its boundary
conditions. This phenomenon takes place under very mild and robust  
assumptions
on local dynamics with short range interactions. However, we show  
that it is
unstable with respect to arbitrarily weak local random perturbations.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.DS/0505610

---------------------------------------------------------------

3401. ANALYSIS OF MULTISERVER RETRIAL QUEUEING SYSTEM: A MARTINGALE  
APPROACH  AND AN ALGORITHM OF SOLUTION

Vyacheslav M. Abramov

The paper studies a multiserver retrial queueing system with $m$  
servers.
Arrival process is a point process with strictly stationary and ergodic
increments. A customer arriving to the system occupies one of the  
free servers.
If upon arrival all servers are busy, then the customer goes to the  
secondary
queue, orbit, and after some random time retries more and more to  
occupy a
server. A service time of each customer is exponentially distributed  
random
variable with parameter $\mu_1$. A time between retrials is  
exponentially
distributed with parameter $\mu_2$ for each customer. Using a martingale
approach the paper provides an analysis of this system. The paper  
establishes
the stability condition and studies a behavior of the limiting queue- 
length
distributions as $\mu_2$ increases to infinity. As $\mu_2\to\infty$,  
the paper
also proves the convergence of appropriate queue-length distributions  
to those
of the associated `usual' multiserver queueing system without  
retrials. An
algorithm for numerical solution of the equations, associated with  
the limiting
queue-length distribution of retrial systems, is provided.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0505046

---------------------------------------------------------------

3402. THE CENTRAL LIMIT PROBLEM FOR RANDOM VECTORS WITH SYMMETRIES

Elizabeth S. Meckes and  Mark W. Meckes

Motivated by the central limit problem for convex bodies, we study  
normal
approximation of linear functionals of high-dimensional random  
vectors with
various types of symmetries. In particular, we obtain results for  
distributions
which are coordinatewise symmetric, uniform in a regular simplex, or
spherically symmetric. Our proofs are based on Stein's method of  
exchangeable
pairs; as far as we know, this approach has not previously been used  
in convex
geometry and we give a brief introduction to the classical method. The
spherically symmetric case is treated by a variation of Stein's  
method which is
adapted for continuous symmetries.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0505618

---------------------------------------------------------------

3403. A CLASS OF REMARKABLE SUBMARTINGALES (II): ENLARGEMENTS OF  
FILTRATIONS

Ashkan Nikeghbali

Az\'{e}ma associated with an honest time $L$ the supermartingale
$Z_{t}^{L}=\mathbb{P}[L>t|\mathcal{F}_{t}]$ and established some of its
important properties. This supermartingale plays a central role in  
the general
theory of stochastic processes and in particular in the theory of  
progressive
enlargements of filtrations. In this paper, we shall give an additive
characterization for these supermartingales, which in turn will  
naturally
provide many examples of enlargements of filtrations. In particular,  
we use
this characterization to establish some path decomposition results,  
closely
related to or reminiscent of Williams' path decomposition results.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0505623

---------------------------------------------------------------

3404. ON THE SPATIAL MEAN OF THE POINCARE CYCLE

Luis Baez-Duarte

Let $X$ be a measure space and $T:X\to X$ a measurable  
transformation. For
any measurable $E\subseteq X$ and $x\in E$, the possibly infinite  
return time
is $n_E(x):=\inf\{n>0: T^n x\in E\}$. If $T$ is an ergodic  
tranformation of the
probability space $X$, and $\mu(E)>0$, then a theorem of M. Kac  
states that
$\int_E n_E d\mu=1$. We generalize this to any invertible measure  
preserving
transformation $T$ on a finite measure space $X$, by proving  
independently, and
nearly trivially that for any measurable $E\subseteq X$ one has $ 
\int_E n_E
d\mu=\mu(I_E)$, where $I_E$ is the smallest invariant set containing  
$E$. In
particular this also provides a simpler proof of Poincar\'{e}'s  
recurrence
theorem.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0505625

---------------------------------------------------------------

3405. POISSON MICROBALLS: SELF-SIMILARITY AND DIRECTIONAL ANALYSIS

Hermine Bierm\'e and Anne Estrade

We study a random field obtained by counting the number of balls  
containing
each point, when overlapping balls are thrown at random according to  
a Poisson
random measure. We are particularly interested in the local asymptotical
self-similarity (lass) properties of the field, as well as the action  
of X-ray
transforms. We exhibit two different lass properties when considering  
the
asymptotic either "in law" or "on the second order moment" and prove a
relationship between the lass behavior of the field and the lass  
behavior of
its X-ray transform. These results can be exploited to modelize and  
analyze
granular media, images or connections network.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0505635

---------------------------------------------------------------

3406. EQUILIBRIUM FLUCTUATIONS FOR A ONE-DIMENSIONAL INTERFACE IN THE  
SOLID ON  SOLID APPROXIMATION

Gustavo Posta

An unbounded one-dimensional solid-on-solid model with integer  
heights is
studied. Unbounded here means that there is no a priori restrictions  
on the
discret e gradient of the interface. The interaction Hamiltonian of the
interface is given by a finite range part, pr oportional to the sum  
of height
differences, plus a part of exponentially decaying long range  
potentials. The
evolution of the interface is a reversible Markov process. We prove  
that if
this system is started in the center of a box of size L after a time  
of order
L^3 it reaches, with a very large probability, the top or the bottom  
of the
box.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0505643

---------------------------------------------------------------

3407. INFLUENCE AND SHARP-THRESHOLD THEOREMS FOR MONOTONIC MEASURES

B. T. Graham and G. R. Grimmett

The influence theorem for product measures on the discrete space {0,1} 
^N may
be extended to probability measures with the property of monotonicity  
(which is
equivalent to `strong positive-association'). Corresponding results  
are valid
for probability measures on the cube [0,1]^N that are absolutely  
continuous
with respect to Lebesgue measure. These results lead to a sharp- 
threshold
theorem for measures of random-cluster type, and this may be applied to
box-crossings in the two-dimensional random-cluster model.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0505057

---------------------------------------------------------------

3408. THE STOCHASTIC ACCELERATION PROBLEM IN TWO DIMENSIONS

T. Komorowski and L. Ryzhik

We consider the motion of a particle in a two-dimensional spatially
homogeneous mixing potential and show that its momentum converges to the
Brownian motion on a circle. This complements the limit theorem of  
Kesten and
Papanicolaou \cite{KP} proved in dimensions $d\ge 3$.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math-ph/0505083

---------------------------------------------------------------

3409. ON THE PERIODIC PROPERTIES OF SELF-DECIMATED GENERATORS OF  
PSEUDORANDOM  NUMBERS

Sergey Agievich and  Oleg Solovey

We consider a self-decimated generator of pseudorandom numbers and  
examine
the preperiod $\lambda$ and the period $\mu$ of its state sequence.  
We obtain
the expectations and variances of $\lambda$ and $\mu$ for the case when
decimation steps are chosen randomly and independently from the set  
{1,2}.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.CO/0505660

---------------------------------------------------------------

3410. NEW SCALING OF ITZYKSON-ZUBER INTEGRALS

Benoit Collins and  Piotr Sniady

We study asymptotics of the Itzykson-Zuber integrals in the scaling  
when one
of the matrices has a small rank compared to the full rank. We show  
that the
result is basically the same as in the case when one of the matrices  
has a
fixed rank. In this way we extend the recent results of Guionnet and  
Maida who
showed that for a latter scaling the Itzykson-Zuber integral is given  
in terms
of the Voiculescu's R-transform of the full rank matrix.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0505664

---------------------------------------------------------------

3411. A STABLE MARRIAGE OF POISSON AND LEBESGUE

Christopher Hoffman and  Alexander E. Holroyd and Yuval Peres

Let $\Xi$ be a discrete set in $\rd$. Call the elements of $\Xi$  
centers. The
well-known Voronoi tessellation partitions $\rd$ into polyhedral  
regions (of
varying sizes) by allocating each site of $\rd$ to the closest  
center. Here we
study "fair" allocations of $\rd$ to $\Xi$ in which the regions  
allocated to
different centers have equal volumes.
   We prove that if $\Xi$ is obtained from a translation-invariant  
ergodic point
process, then there is a unique fair allocation which is stable in  
the sense of
the Gale-Shapley marriage problem. (That is, sites and centers both  
prefer to
be allocated as close as possible, and an allocation is said to be  
unstable if
some site and center both prefer each other over their current  
allocations.)
   We show that the region allocated to each center $\xi$ is a union  
of finitely
many bounded connected sets. However, in the case of a Poisson  
process, an
infinite volume of sites are allocated to a centers further away than  
$\xi$. We
prove power law lower bounds on the allocation distance of a typical  
site. It
is an open problem to prove any upper bound in $d>1$.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0505668

---------------------------------------------------------------

3412. ON CONVERGENCE OF IMPORTANCE SAMPLING AND OTHER PROPERLY  
WEIGHTED  SAMPLES TO THE TARGET DISTRIBUTION

S. Malefaki and  G. Iliopoulos

We consider importance sampling as well as other properly weighted  
samples
with respect to a target distribution $\pi$ from a different point of  
view. By
considering the associated weights as sojourn times until the next  
jump, we
define appropriate jump processes. When the original sample sequence  
forms an
ergodic Markov chain, the associated jump process is an ergodic semi-- 
Markov
process with stationary distribution $\pi$. Hence, the type of  
convergence of
properly weighted samples may be stronger than that of weighted  
means. In
particular, when the samples are independent and the mean weight is  
bounded
above, we describe a slight modification in order to achieve exact  
(weighted)
samples from the target distribution.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.ST/0505045

---------------------------------------------------------------

3413. QUENCHED INVARIANCE PRINCIPLES FOR RANDOM WALKS ON PERCOLATION  
CLUSTERS

P. Mathieu and A. L. Piatnitski

We prove the almost sure ('quenched') invariance principle for a random
walker on an infinite Bernoulli percolation cluster in $\Z^d$ where $d 
$ is
larger or equal than 2.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0505672

---------------------------------------------------------------

3414. RIGOROUS RESULTS ON THE THRESHOLD NETWORK MODEL

Norio Konno and  Naoki Masuda and  Rahul Roy and  Anish Sarkar

We analyze the threshold network model in which a pair of vertices with
random weights are connected by an edge when the summation of the  
weights
exceeds a threshold. We prove some convergence theorems and central  
limit
theorems on the vertex degree, degree correlation, and the number of  
prescribed
subgraphs. We also generalize some results in the spatially extended  
cases.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0505681

---------------------------------------------------------------

3415. LOWER DEVIATION PROBABILITIES FOR SUPERCRITICAL GALTON-WATSON  
PROCESSES

Klaus Fleischmann and Vitali Wachtel

There is a well-known sequence of constants c_n describing the growth of
supercritical Galton-Watson processes Z_n. With 'lower deviation  
probabilities'
we refer to P(Z_n=k_n) with k_n=o(c_n) as n increases. We give a  
detailed
picture of the asymptotic behavior of such lower deviation  
probabilities. This
complements and corrects results known from the literature concerning  
special
cases. Knowledge on lower deviation probabilities is needed to  
describe large
deviations of the ratio Z_{n+1}/Z_n. The latter are important in  
statistical
inference to estimate the offspring mean. For our proofs, we adapt the
well-known Cramer method for proving large deviations of sums of  
independent
variables to our needs.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0505683

---------------------------------------------------------------

3416. DELAY DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS DRIVEN BY LEVY PROCESSES:  
STATIONARITY AND  FELLER PROPERTIES

M. Reiss and  M. Riedle and  O. van Gaans

We consider a stochastic delay differential equation driven by a  
general Levy
process. Both, the drift and the noise term may depend on the past,  
but only
the drift term is assumed to be linear. We show that the segment  
process is
eventually Feller, but in general not eventually strong Feller on the  
Skorokhod
space. The existence of an invariant measure is shown by proving  
tightness of
the segments using semimartingale characteristics and the Krylov- 
Bogoliubov
method. A counterexample shows that the stationary solution in  
completely
general situations may not be unique, but in more specific cases  
uniqueness is
established.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0505684

---------------------------------------------------------------

3417. SELF-SIMILAR AND MARKOV COMPOSITION STRUCTURES

Alexander Gnedin and Jim Pitman

The bijection between composition structures and random closed  
subsets of the
unit interval implies that the composition structures associated with  
$S \cap
[0,1]$ for a self-similar random set $S\subset {\mathbb R}_+$ are  
those which
are consistent with respect to a simple truncation operation. Using the
standard coding of compositions by finite strings of binary digits  
starting
with a 1, the random composition of $n$ is defined by the first $n$  
terms of a
random binary sequence of infinite length. The locations of 1s in the  
sequence
are the places visited by an increasing time-homogeneous Markov chain  
on the
positive integers if and only if $S = \exp(-W)$ for some stationary
regenerative random subset $W$ of the real line. Complementing our  
study in
previous papers, we identify self-similar Markovian composition  
structures
associated with the two-parameter family of partition structures.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0505687

---------------------------------------------------------------

3418. MIXING TIME BOUNDS VIA THE SPECTRAL PROFILE

Sharad Goel and  Ravi Montenegro and  Prasad Tetali

On complete, non-compact manifolds and infinite graphs, Faber-Krahn
inequalities have been used to estimate the rate of decay of the heat  
kernel.
We develop this technique in the setting of finite Markov chains,  
proving upper
and lower mixing time bounds via the spectral profile. This approach  
lets us
recover and refine previous conductance-based bounds of mixing time  
(including
the Morris-Peres result), and in general leads to sharper estimates of
convergence rates. We apply this method to several models including  
groups with
moderate growth, the fractal-like Viscek graphs, and the torus, to  
obtain tight
bounds on the corresponding mixing times.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0505690

---------------------------------------------------------------

3419. RANK INDEPENDENCE AND REARRANGEMENTS OF RANDOM VARIABLES

Alexander Gnedin and Zbigniew Nitecki

A rearrangement of $n$ independent uniform $[0,1]$ random variables is a
sequence of $n$ random variables $Y_1,...,Y_n$ whose vector of order  
statistics
has the same distribution as that for the $n$ uniforms. We consider
rearrangements satisfying the strong rank independence condition,  
that the rank
of $Y_k$ among $Y_1,...,Y_k$ is independent of the values of  
$Y_1,...,Y_{k-1}$,
for $k=1,...,n$. Nontrivial examples of such rearrangements are the  
travellers'
processes defined by Gnedin and Krengel. We show that these are the only
examples when $n=2$, and when certain restrictive assumptions hold  
for $n\geq
3$; we also construct a new class of examples of such rearrangements  
for which
the restrictive assumptions do not hold.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0505692

---------------------------------------------------------------

3420. EFFICIENT SPIKE-SORTING OF MULTI-STATE NEURONS USING INTER- 
SPIKE  INTERVALS INFORMATION

Matthieu Delescluse (LPC) and  Christophe Pouzat (LPC)

We demonstrate the efficacy of a new spike-sorting method based on a  
Markov
Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithm by applying it to real data  
recorded from
Purkinje cells (PCs) in young rat cerebellar slices. This algorithm  
is unique
in its capability to estimate and make use of the firing statistics  
as well as
the spike amplitude dynamics of the recorded neurons. PCs exhibit  
multiple
discharge states, giving rise to multimodal interspike interval (ISI)
histograms and to correlations between successive ISIs. The amplitude  
of the
spikes generated by a PC in an "active" state decreases, a feature  
typical of
many neurons from both vertebrates and invertebrates. These two features
constitute a major and recurrent problem for all the presently available
spike-sorting methods. We first show that a Hidden Markov Model with 3
log-Normal states provides a flexible and satisfying description of  
the complex
firing of single PCs. We then incorporate this model into our  
previous MCMC
based spike-sorting algorithm (Pouzat et al, 2004, J. Neurophys. 91,  
2910-2928)
and test this new algorithm on multi-unit recordings of bursting PCs.  
We show
that our method successfully classifies the bursty spike trains fired  
by PCs by
using an independent single unit recording from a patch-clamp pipette.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/q-bio.QM/0505053

---------------------------------------------------------------

3421. HYDRODYNAMIC SCALING LIMIT OF CONTINUUM SOLID-ON-SOLID MODEL

Anamaria Savu

A fourth-order nonlinear evolution equation is derived from a  
microscopic
model for surface diffusion, namely, the continuum solid-on-solid  
model. We use
the method developed by Varadhan for the computation of hydrodynamic  
scaling
limit of nongradient models. What distinguishes our model from other  
models
discussed so far is the presence of two conservation laws for the  
dynamics in a
nonperiodic box and the complex dynamics that is not nearest- 
neighbor. Along
the way, a few steps has to be adapted to our new context. As a  
byproduct of
our main result we also derive the hydrodynamic scaling limit of a  
perturbation
of continuum solid-on-solid model, a model that incorporates both  
surface
diffusion and surface electromigration.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0506001

---------------------------------------------------------------

3422. ASYMPTOTIC STATISTICAL EQUIVALENCE FOR ERGODIC DIFFUSIONS: THE   
MULTIDIMENSIONAL CASE

Arnak Dalalyan (PMA) and  Markus Reiss (WIAS)

Asymptotic local equivalence in the sense of Le Cam is established for
inference on the drift in multidimensional ergodic diffusions and an
accompanying sequence of Gaussian shift experiments. The  
nonparametric local
neighbourhoods can be attained for any dimension, provided the  
regularity of
the drift is sufficiently large. In addition, a heteroskedastic Gaussian
regression experiment is given, which is also locally asymptotically  
equivalent
and which does not depend on the centre of localisation. For one  
direction of
the equivalence an explicit Markov kernel is constructed.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.ST/0505053

---------------------------------------------------------------

3423. A CHARACTERIZATION OF MARKOV PROCESSES ENJOYING THE TIME- 
INVERSION  PROPERTY

Stephan Lawi

We give a necessary and sufficient condition for a homogeneous Markov  
process
taking values in $\R^n$ to enjoy the time-inversion property of degree
$\alpha$. The condition sets the shape for the semigroup densities of  
the
process and allows to further extend the class of known processes  
satisfying
the time-inversion property. As an application we recover the result of
Watanabe in \cite{Wa1975} for continuous and conservative Markov  
processes on
$\R_+$. As new examples we generalize Dunkl processes and construct a
matrix-valued process with jumps related to the Wishart process by a
skew-product representation.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0506013

---------------------------------------------------------------

3424. CLOSED AND EXACT FUNCTIONS IN THE CONTEXT OF GINZBURG-LANDAU  
MODELS

Anamaria Savu

For a general vector field we exhibit two Hilbert spaces, namely the  
space of
so called closed functions and the space of exact functions and we  
calculate
the codimension of the space of exact functions inside the larger  
space of
closed functions. In particular we provide a new approach for the  
known cases:
the Glauber field and the second-order Ginzburg-Landau field, and for  
the case
of the fourth-order Ginzburg-Landau field.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.FA/0506002

---------------------------------------------------------------

3425. MOMENT INEQUALITIES FOR U-STATISTICS

Radoslaw Adamczak

We present moment inequalities for completely degenerate Banach space  
valued
(generalized) U-statistics of arbitrary order. The estimates involve  
suprema of
empirical processes, which in the real valued case can be replaced by  
simpler
norms of the kernel matrix (i.e. norms of some multilinear operators  
associated
with the kernel matrix). As a corollary we derive tail inequalities for
U-statistics with bounded kernels and for some multiple stochastic  
integrals.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0506026

---------------------------------------------------------------

3426. LOSSES IN M/GI/M/N QUEUES

Vyacheslav M. Abramov

The $M/GI/m/n$ queueing system under the assumption that $\lambda = m 
\mu$ is
considered, where $\lambda$ is the rate of arrivals, $\mu$ is the  
reciprocal of
the expected service times, $m$ is the number of servers and $n$ is the
maximally possible queue-length. It is proved that the expectation of  
the
number of losses during a busy period is equal to $m^m/m!$ for all $n 
\geq 0$.
This result is an extension of the corresponding result for the $M/GI/ 
1/n$
queueing system established originally by the author.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0506033

---------------------------------------------------------------

3427. DYNAMICS AND ENDOGENY FOR RECURSIVE PROCESSES ON TREES

Jon Warren

We consider stochastic processes indexed by the vertices of an infinite
binary tree having a simple recursive structure. The value at any  
vertex is
some fixed function of the values at the two daughter vertices  
together with
some independent innovation. Endogeny means the innovations are  
generating.
When endogeny does not hold there exist dynamics in which the  
innovations are
held fixed while some additional randomness on the boundary of the  
tree is
perturbed.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0506038

---------------------------------------------------------------

3428. A UNIFYING CLASS OF SKOROKHOD EMBEDDINGS: CONNECTING THE AZEMA- 
YOR AND  VALLOIS EMBEDDINGS

A. M. G. Cox and  D. G. Hobson

In this paper we consider the Skorokhod embedding problem in Brownian  
motion.
In particular, we give a solution based on the local time at zero of  
a variably
skewed Brownian motion related to the underlying Brownian motion.  
Special cases
of the construction include the Azema-Yor and Vallois embeddings. In  
turn, the
construction has an interpretation in the Chacon-Walsh framework.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0506040

---------------------------------------------------------------

3429. FREE-DIFFERENTIABILITY CONDITIONS ON THE FREE-ENERGY FUNCTION  
IMPLYING  LARGE DEVIATIONS

Henri Comman

Let $(\mu_{\alpha})$ be a net of Radon sub-probability measures on  
the real
line, and $(t_{\alpha})$ be a net in $]0,+\infty[$ converging to 0.  
Assuming
that the generalized log-moment generating function $L(\lambda)$  
exists for all
$\lambda$ in a nonempty open interval $G$, we give conditions on the  
left or
right derivatives of $L_{\mid G}$, implying vague (and thus narrow  
when $0\in
G$) large deviations. The rate function (which can be nonconvex) is  
obtained as
an abstract Legendre-Fenchel transform. This allows us to strengthen the
G\"{a}rtner-Ellis theorem by removing the usual differentiability  
assumption. A
related question of R. S. Ellis is solved.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0506044

---------------------------------------------------------------

3430. DIFFUSING POLYGONS AND SLE($\KAPPA,\RHO$)

Robert O. Bauer and  Roland M. Friedrich

We give a geometric derivation of SLE($\kappa,\rho$) in terms of  
conformally
invariant random growing subsets of polygons. We relate the  
parameters $\rho_j$
to the exterior angles of the polygons. We also show that SLE($\kappa, 
\rho$)
can be generated by a metric Brownian motion, where metric and  
Brownian motion
are coupled and the metric ist the pull-back metric of the Euclidean  
metric of
an evolving polygon.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0506062

---------------------------------------------------------------

3431. STUDY ON OPTIMAL TIMING OF MARK-TO-MARKET FOR CONTINGENT CREDIT  
RISK  CONTROL

Jiali Liao and Ted Theodosopoulos

Over-the-counter derivatives have contributed significantly to the
effectiveness and efficiency of the international financial system  
but also
entail significant counterparty credit risk. Collateralization is one  
of the
most important and widespread credit risk mitigation techniques used in
derivatives transactions. However, the relevant decisions are often  
made in an
ad-hoc manner, without reference to an analytical framework. Very little
academic research has addressed the quantitative analysis of  
collateralization
for contingent credit risk control. The issue of mark-to-market  
timing becomes
important for reducing credit exposure of illiquid and long term  
derivative
contracts due to the difficulty and cost of marking to market. the  
goal of this
research is to propose a framework for minimizing the potential  
credit exposure
of collateralized derivative transactions by optimizing mark-to- 
market timing.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0506077

---------------------------------------------------------------

3432. STOCHASTIC FLOWS ASSOCIATED TO COALESCENT PROCESSES III: LIMIT  
THEOREMS

Jean Bertoin (PMA) and  Jean-Fran\c{c}ois Le Gall (DMA)

We prove several limit theorems that relate coalescent processes to
continuous-state branching processes. Some of these theorems are  
stated in
terms of the so-called generalized Fleming-Viot processes, which  
describe the
evolution of a population with fixed size, and are duals to the  
coalescents
with multiple collisions studied by Pitman and others. We first discuss
asymptotics when the initial size of the population tends to  
infinity. In that
setting, under appropriate hypotheses, we show that a rescaled  
version of the
generalized Fleming-Viot process converges weakly to a continuous-state
branching process. As a corollary, we get a hydrodynamic limit for  
certain
sequences of coalescents with multiple collisions: Under an appropriate
scaling, the empirical measure associated with sizes of the blocks  
converges to
a (deterministic) limit which solves a generalized form of  
Smoluchowski's
coagulation equation. We also study the behavior in small time of a  
fixed
coalescent with multiple collisions, under a regular variation  
assumption on
the tail of the measure $\nu$ governing the coalescence events.  
Precisely, we
prove that the number of blocks with size less than $\epsilon x$ at time
$(\epsilon\nu([\epsilon,1]))^{-1}$ behaves like
$\epsilon^{-1}\lambda\_1(]0,x[)$ as $\epsilon\to 0$, where $\lambda\_1 
$ is the
distribution of the size of one cluster at time 1 in a continuous-state
branching process with stable branching mechanism. This generalizes a  
classical
result for the Kingman coalescent.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0506092

---------------------------------------------------------------

3433. TWO NEW MARKOV ORDER ESTIMATORS

Yuval Peres and Paul Shields

We present two new methods for estimating the order (memory depth) of a
finite alphabet Markov chain from observation of a sample path. One  
method is
based on entropy estimation via recurrence times of patterns, and the  
other
relies on a comparison of empirical conditional probabilities. The  
key to both
methods is a qualitative change that occurs when a parameter (a  
candidate for
the order) passes the true order. We also present extensions to order
estimation for Markov random fields.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.ST/0506080

---------------------------------------------------------------

3434. DIFFUSION MAPS, SPECTRAL CLUSTERING AND EIGENFUNCTIONS OF  
FOKKER-PLANCK  OPERATORS

Boaz Nadler and  Stephane Lafon and  Ronald R. Coifman and  Ioannis  
G. Kevrekidis

This paper presents a diffusion based probabilistic interpretation of
spectral clustering and dimensionality reduction algorithms that use the
eigenvectors of the normalized graph Laplacian. Given the pairwise  
adjacency
matrix of all points, we define a diffusion distance between any two  
data
points and show that the low dimensional representation of the data  
by the
first few eigenvectors of the corresponding Markov matrix is optimal  
under a
certain mean squared error criterion. Furthermore, assuming that data  
points
are random samples from a density $p(\x) = e^{-U(\x)}$ we identify these
eigenvectors as discrete approximations of eigenfunctions of a Fokker- 
Planck
operator in a potential $2U(\x)$ with reflecting boundary conditions.  
Finally,
applying known results regarding the eigenvalues and eigenfunctions  
of the
continuous Fokker-Planck operator, we provide a mathematical  
justification for
the success of spectral clustering and dimensional reduction  
algorithms based
on these first few eigenvectors. This analysis elucidates, in terms  
of the
characteristics of diffusion processes, many empirical findings  
regarding
spectral clustering algorithms.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.NA/0506090

---------------------------------------------------------------

3435. A NOTE ON THE RUIN PROBLEM WITH RISKY INVESTMENTS

David Maher

We reprove a result concerning certain ruin in the classical problem  
of the
probability of ruin with risky investments and several of it's  
generalisations.
We also provide the combined transition density of the risk and  
investment
processes in the diffusion case.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0506127

---------------------------------------------------------------

3436. RATE OF ESCAPE OF THE MIXER CHAIN

Ariel Yadin

We study a Markov chain called the mixer chain, swapping tiles placed  
on a
graph. If the graph is a Cayley graph, this process is a random walk  
on a
semidirect product of groups. For the graph Z, we study the rate of  
escape of
this chain. We show that, with probability tending to 1 as time tends to
infinity, the chain is at distance at least t^{3/4} from its origin,  
and at
most t^{3/4} log^{5/4}(t).


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0506129

---------------------------------------------------------------

3437. CONTINUOUS AND TRACTABLE MODELS FOR THE VARIATION OF  
EVOLUTIONARY RATES

Thomas Lepage (1) and  Stephan Lawi (2) and  Paul Tupper (1) and   
David Bryant (1)  ((1) McGill University (2) Universit\'e Pierre et  
Marie Curie)

We propose a continuous model for evolutionary rate variation across  
sites
and over the tree and derive exact transition probabilities under  
this model.
Changes in rate are modelled using the CIR process, a diffusion  
widely used in
financial applications. The model directly extends the standard gamma
distributed rates across site model, with one additional parameter  
governing
changes in rate down the tree. The parameters of the model can be  
estimated
directly from two well-known statistics: the index of dispersion and  
the gamma
shape parameter of the rates across sites model. The CIR model can be  
readily
incorporated into probabilistic models for sequence evolution. We  
provide here
an exact formula for the likelihood of a three taxa tree. Larger  
trees can be
evaluated using Monte-Carlo methods.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0506145

---------------------------------------------------------------

3438. QUANTITATIVE NOISE SENSITIVITY AND EXCEPTIONAL TIMES FOR  
PERCOLATION

Oded Schramm and Jeffrey E. Steif

One goal of this paper is to prove that dynamical critical site  
percolation
on the planar triangular lattice has exceptional times at which  
percolation
occurs. In doing so, new quantitative noise sensitivity results for  
percolation
are obtained. The latter is based on a novel method for controlling the
  "level k" Fourier coefficients via the construction of a randomized  
algorithm
which looks at random bits, outputs the value of a particular  
function but
looks at any fixed input bit with low probability. We also obtain  
upper and
lower bounds on the Hausdorff dimension of the set of percolating  
times. We
then study the problem of exceptional times for certain "k-arm"  
events on
wedges and cones. As a corollary of this analysis, we prove, among other
things, that there are no times at which there are two infinite "white"
clusters, obtain an upper bound on the Hausdorff dimension of the set  
of times
at which there are both an infinite white cluster and an infinite  
black cluster
and prove that for dynamical critical bond percolation on the square  
grid there
are no exceptional times at which three disjoint infinite clusters  
are present.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0504586

---------------------------------------------------------------

3439. A CENTRAL LIMIT THEOREM FOR NON-OVERLAPPING RETURN TIMES

Oliver Johnson

Define the non-overlapping return time of a random process to be the  
number
of blocks that we wait before a particular block reappears. We prove  
a Central
Limit Theorem based on these return times. This result has  
applications to
entropy estimation, and to the problem of determining if digits have  
come from
an independent equidistribted sequence. In the case of an  
equidistributed
sequence, we use an argument based on negative association to prove  
convergence
under weaker conditions.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0506165

---------------------------------------------------------------

3440. PRECISE ASYMPTOTICS FOR A RANDOM WALKER'S MAXIMUM

Alain Comtet and Satya N. Majumdar

We consider a discrete time random walk in one dimension. At each  
time step
the walker jumps by a random distance, independent from step to step,  
drawn
from an arbitrary symmetric density function. We show that the expected
positive maximum E[M_n] of the walk up to n steps behaves  
asymptotically for
large n as, E[M_n]/\sigma=\sqrt{2n/\pi}+ \gamma +O(n^{-1/2}), where  
\sigma^2 is
the variance of the step lengths. While the leading \sqrt{n} behavior is
universal and easy to derive, the leading correction term turns out  
to be a
nontrivial constant \gamma. For the special case of uniform  
distribution over
[-1,1], Coffmann et. al. recently computed \gamma=-0.516068...by exactly
enumerating a lengthy double series. Here we present a closed exact  
formula for
\gamma valid for arbitrary symmetric distributions. We also  
demonstrate how
\gamma appears in the thermodynamic limit as the leading behavior of the
difference variable E[M_n]-E[|x_n|] where x_n is the position of the  
walker
after n steps. An application of these results to the equilibrium
thermodynamics of a Rouse polymer chain is pointed out. We also  
generalize our
results to L\'evy walks.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/cond-mat/0506195

---------------------------------------------------------------

3441. NON-COLLIDING SYSTEM OF BROWNIAN PARTICLES AS PFAFFIAN PROCESS

Makoto Katori

In the paper [7] we studied the temporally inhomogeneous system of
non-colliding Brownian motions and proved that multi-time correlation  
functions
are generally given by the quaternion determinants in the sense of  
Dyson and
Mehta. In this report we give another proof of the equivalent  
statement using
Fredholm determinant and Fredholm pfaffian, and claim that the  
present system
is a typical example of pfaffian processes.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0506186

---------------------------------------------------------------

3442. INFINITE SYSTEMS OF NON-COLLIDING GENERALIZED MEANDERS AND   
RIEMANN-LIOUVILLE DIFFERINTEGRALS

Makoto Katori and  Hideki Tanemura

Yor's generalized meander is a temporally inhomogeneous modification  
of the
$2(\nu+1)$-dimensional Bessel process with $\nu > -1$, in which the
inhomogeneity is indexed by $\kappa \in [0, 2(\nu+1))$. We introduce the
non-colliding particle systems of the generalized meanders and prove  
that they
are the Pfaffian processes, in the sense that any multitime correlation
function is given by a Pfaffian. In the infinite particle limit, we  
show that
the elements of matrix kernels of the obtained infinite Pfaffian  
processes are
generally expressed by the Riemann-Liouville differintegrals of  
functions
comprising the Bessel functions $J_{\nu}$ used in the fractional  
calculus,
where orders of differintegration are determined by $\nu-\kappa$. As  
special
cases of the two parameters $(\nu, \kappa)$, the present infinite  
systems
include the quaternion determinantal processes studied by Forrester,  
Nagao and
Honner and by Nagao, which exhibit the temporal transitions between the
universality classes of random matrix theory.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0506187

---------------------------------------------------------------

3443. A VARIATIONAL PRINCIPLE IN THE DUAL PAIR OF REPRODUCING KERNEL  
HILBERT  SPACES AND AN APPLICATION

Hyun Jae Yoo

Given a positive definite, bounded linear operator $A$ on the Hilbert  
space
$\mathcal{H}_0:=l^2(E)$, we consider a reproducing kernel Hilbert space
$\mathcal{H}_+$ with a reproducing kernel $A(x,y)$. Here $E$ is any  
countable
set and $A(x,y)$, $x,y\in E$, is the representation of $A$ w.r.t. the  
usual
basis of $\mathcal{H}_0$. Imposing further conditions on the operator  
$A$, we
also consider another reproducing kernel Hilbert space $\mathcal{H}_- 
$ with a
kernel function $B(x,y)$, which is the representation of the inverse  
of $A$ in
a sense, so that $\mathcal{H}_-\supset\mathcal{H}_0\supset\mathcal{H}_+$
becomes a rigged Hilbert space. We investigate a relationship between  
the
ratios of determinants of some partial matrices related to $A$ and $B 
$ and the
suitable projections in $\mathcal{H}_-$ and $\mathcal{H}_+$. We also  
get a
variational principle on the limit ratios of these values. We apply this
relation to show the Gibbsianness of the determinantal point process (or
fermion point process) defined by the operator $A(I+A)^{-1}$ on the  
set $E$. It
turns out that the class of determinantal point processes that can be
recognized as Gibbs measures for suitable interactions is much bigger  
than that
obtained by Shirai and Takahashi.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0506189

---------------------------------------------------------------

3444. RANDOM CONFORMAL DYNAMICAL SYSTEMS

Bertrand Deroin & Victor Kleptsyn

We consider random dynamical systems such as groups of conformal
transformations with a probability measure, or transversaly conformal
foliations with a Laplace operator along the leaves, in which case we  
consider
the holonomy pseudo-group. We prove that either there exists a measure
invariant under all the elements of the group (or the pseudo-group),  
or almost
surely a long composition of maps contracts exponentially a ball. We  
deduce
some results about the unique ergodicity.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.DS/0506204

---------------------------------------------------------------

3445. CONTINUITY THEOREMS FOR THE $M/M/1/N$ QUEUEING SYSTEM

Vyacheslav M. Abramov

In this paper continuity theorems are established for the number of  
losses
during a busy period of the $M/M/1/n$ queue, when the service time  
probability
distribution, slightly different in certain sense from the exponential
distribution, is approximated by that exponential distribution.  
Continuity
theorems are obtained in the form of one or two-side stochastic  
inequalities.
The paper shows how the bounds of these inequalities are changed if  
one or
other assumption, associated with specific properties of the service  
time
distribution (precisely described in the paper), is done.  
Specifically, some
parametric families of service time distributions are discussed, and  
the paper
establishes uniform estimations (given for all possible values of the
parameter) and local estimations (where the parameter is fixed and  
takes only
the given value). The analysis of the paper is based on the level  
crossing
approach and some characterization properties of exponential  
distribution.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0506227

---------------------------------------------------------------

3446. SINGULARITY POINTS FOR FIRST PASSAGE PERCOLATION

J. E. Yukich and Yu Zhang

Let a and b be fixed positive scalars. Assign independently to each  
edge in
the two-dimensional integer lattice the value a with probability p or  
the value
b with probability 1-p. For all u and v in the two-dimensional  
integer lattice,
let T(u,v) denote the first passage time between u and v. We show  
that there
are points x in the plane such that the `time constant' in the  
direction of x,
namely lim_{n \to \infty} n^{-1} E_p[T(0, nx)], is not a three times
differentiable function of p.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0506241

---------------------------------------------------------------

3447. HARRIS FAMILY OF DISCRETE DISTRIBUTIONS

E. Sandhya and  S. Sherly and  and N. Raju

In this paper we discuss the basic properties of a discrete distribution
introduced by Harris in 1948 and obtain a characterization of it. The
divisibility properties of the distribution are also studied. We  
derive the
moment and maximum likelihood estimators for both the parameters and  
verify
them by simulated observations.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.ST/0506220

---------------------------------------------------------------

3448. RECONSTRUCTION AND SUBGAUSSIAN OPERATORS

Shahar Mendelson and  Alain Pajor and Nicole Tomczak-Jaegermann

We present a randomized method to approximate any vector $v$ from  
some set $T
\subset \R^n$. The data one is given is the set $T$, and $k$ scalar  
products
$(\inr{X_i,v})_{i=1}^k$, where $(X_i)_{i=1}^k$ are i.i.d. isotropic  
subgaussian
random vectors in $\R^n$, and $k \ll n$. We show that with high  
probability,
any $y \in T$ for which $(\inr{X_i,y})_{i=1}^k$ is close to the data  
vector
$(\inr{X_i,v})_{i=1}^k$ will be a good approximation of $v$, and that  
the
degree of approximation is determined by a natural geometric parameter
associated with the set $T$.
   We also investigate a random method to identify exactly any vector  
which has
a relatively short support using linear subgaussian measurements as  
above. It
turns out that our analysis, when applied to $\{-1,1\}$-valued  
vectors with
i.i.d, symmetric entries, yields new information on the geometry of  
faces of
random $\{-1,1\}$-polytope; we show that a $k$-dimensional random
$\{-1,1\}$-polytope with $n$ vertices is $m$-neighborly for very  
large $m\le
{ck/\log (c' n/k)}$. The proofs are based on new estimates on the  
behavior of
the empirical process $\sup_{f \in F} |k^{-1}\sum_{i=1}^k f^2(X_i) - 
\E f^2 |$
when $F$ is a subset of the $L_2$ sphere. The estimates are given in  
terms of
the $\gamma_2$ functional with respect to the $\psi_2$ metric on $F$,  
and hold
both in exponential probability and in expectation.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.FA/0506239

---------------------------------------------------------------

3449. LARGE-DEVIATIONS/THERMODYNAMIC APPROACH TO PERCOLATION ON THE  
COMPLETE  GRAPH

Marek Biskup and  Lincoln Chayes and S. Alex Smith

We present a large-deviations/thermodynamic approach to the classic  
problem
of percolation on the complete graph. Specifically, we determine the
large-deviation rate function for the probability that the giant  
component
occupies a fixed fraction of the graph. One consequence is an immediate
derivation of the "cavity" formula for the fraction of sites in the  
giant
component. As a by-product of our analysis we compute also the large- 
deviation
rate functions for the probabilities of the event that the random  
graph is
connected, the event that it contains no loops and the event that it  
contains
only "small" components.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0506255

---------------------------------------------------------------

3450. STOCHASTIC INEQUALITIES FOR SINGLE-SERVER LOSS QUEUEING SYSTEMS

Vyacheslav M. Abramov

The present paper provides some new stochastic inequalities for the
characteristics of the $M/GI/1/n$ and $GI/M/1/n$ loss queueing  
systems. These
stochastic inequalities are based on the deepen up- and down- 
crossings method,
and they are stronger than the known stochastic inequalities obtained  
earlier.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0505068

---------------------------------------------------------------

3451. BOUNDS ON NON-SYMMETRIC DIVERGENCE MEASURES IN TERMS OF  
SYMMETRIC  DIVERGENCE MEASURES

Inder Jeet Taneja

There are many information and divergence measures exist in the  
literature on
information theory and statistics. The most famous among them are
Kullback-Leibler (1951) relative information and Jeffreys (1951) J- 
divergence.
Sibson (1969) Jensen-Shannon divergence has also found its  
applications in the
literature. The author (1995) studied a new divergence measures based on
arithmetic and geometric means. The measures like harmonic mean  
divergence and
triangular discrimination are also known in the literature. Recently,  
Dragomir
et al. (2001) also studies a new measure similar to J-divergence, we  
call here
the relative J-divergence. Another measures arising due to Jensen- 
Shannon
divergence is also studied by Lin (1991). Here we call it relative
Jensen-Shannon divergence. Relative arithmetic-geometric divergence  
(ref.
Taneja, 2004) is also studied here. All these measures can be written as
particular cases of Csiszar's f-divergence. By putting some  
conditions on the
probability distribution, the aim here is to obtain bounds among the  
measures.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0506256

---------------------------------------------------------------

3452. HARMONIC COORDINATES ON FINITELY CONNECTED FRACTAFOLDS

Alexander Teplyaev

We define finitely connected fractafolds, which are generalizations  
of p.c.f.
self-similar sets introduced by Kigami and of fractafolds introduced by
Strichartz. Any self-similarity is not assumed, and countably infinite
ramification is allowed. We prove that if a fractafold has a  
resistance form in
the sense of Kigami that satisfies certain assumptions, then there  
exists a
weak Riemannian metric, defined almost everywhere, such that the  
energy can be
expressed as the integral of the norm of a weak gradient with respect  
to an
energy measure. This generalizes earlier results by Kusuoka and the  
author.
Furthermore, we prove that if the fractafold can be homeomorphically
represented in harmonic coordinates, then the weak gradient can be  
replaced by
the usual gradient for smooth functions, which generalizes an earlier  
result by
Kigami. We also prove a simple formula for the energy measure  
Laplacian in
harmonic coordinates.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0506261

---------------------------------------------------------------

3453. PERCOLATION, BOUNDARY, NOISE: AN EXPERIMENT

Boris Tsirelson

The scaling limit of the critical percolation, is it a black noise? The
answer depends on stability to perturbations concentrated along a  
line. This
text, containing no proofs, reports experimental results that suggest  
the
affirmative answer.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0506269

---------------------------------------------------------------

3454. STATISTICS OF EXTREME SPACINGS IN DETERMINANTAL RANDOM POINT  
PROCESSES

Alexander Soshnikov

We study translation-invariant determinantal random point fields on  
the real
line. We prove, under quite general conditions, that the smallest  
nearest
spacings between the particles in a large interval have Poisson  
statistics as
the length of the interval goes to infinity.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0506286

---------------------------------------------------------------

3455. RENORMALIZATION ANALYSIS OF CATALYTIC WRIGHT-FISHER DIFFUSIONS

K. Fleischmann and J. M. Swart

Recently, several authors have studied maps where a function,  
describing the
local diffusion matrix of a diffusion process with a linear drift  
towards an
attraction point, is mapped into the average of that function with  
respect to
the unique invariant measure of the diffusion process, as a function  
of the
attraction point. Such mappings arise in the analysis of infinite  
systems of
diffusions indexed by the hierarchical group, with a linear attractive
interaction between the components. In this context, the mappings are  
called
renormalization transformations. We consider such maps for catalytic
Wright-Fisher diffusions. These are diffusions on the unit square  
where the
first component (the catalyst) performs an autonomous Wright-Fisher  
diffusion,
while the second component (the reactant) performs a Wright-Fisher  
diffusion
with a rate depending on the first component through a catalyzing  
function. We
determine the limit of rescaled iterates of renormalization  
transformations
acting on the diffusion matrices of such catalytic Wright-Fisher  
diffusions.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0506311

---------------------------------------------------------------

3456. P\'{E}NALISATIONS OF WALSH'S BROWNIAN MOTION

Joseph Najnudel (PMA)

In this paper, we construct a family of probability measures, by
penalizations of a Walsh's Brownian motion with a weight dependent on  
its value
and its local time at a time t. We prove that this family converges to a
probability measure as t tends to infinity, and we study the  
behaviour of this
limit measure.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0506329

---------------------------------------------------------------

3457. ON THE SCALING LIMIT OF SIMPLE RANDOM WALK EXCURSION MEASURE IN  
THE  PLANE

Michael J. Kozdron (University of Regina)

We prove that the scaling limit of two-dimensional simple random walk
excursion measure in any bounded, simply connected Jordan domain with  
given
inradius is the Brownian excursion measure, a conformally invariant  
infinite
measure on paths.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0506337

---------------------------------------------------------------

3458. LIMITING SEARCH COST DISTRIBUTION FOR THE MOVE-TO-FRONT RULE  
WITH RANDOM  REQUEST PROBABILITIES

Javiera Barrera (MAP5) and  Thierry Huillet (LPTM) and  Christian  
Paroissin  (LMA - PAU)

Consider a list of $n$ files whose popularities are random. These  
files are
updated according to the move-to-front rule and we consider the  
induced Markov
chain at equilibrium. We give the exact limiting distribution of the
search-cost per item as $n$ tends to infinity. Some examples are  
supplied.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0506343

---------------------------------------------------------------

3459. FORBIDDEN GAP ARGUMENT FOR PHASE TRANSITIONS PROVED BY MEANS  
OF  CHESSBOARD ESTIMATES

Marek Biskup and Roman Kotecky

Existence of first-order phase transitions is often proved with the  
aid of
reflection positivity and chessboard estimates. The standard approach  
relies on
estimates of correlations in torus measures which yield the existence  
of a
transition point where the free energy has a discontinuous derivative  
with
respect to a suitably chosen variable. In addition, at the transition  
point,
two distinct translation-invariant Gibbs states are extracted from torus
measures in which the one-sided derivatives of the free energy are  
realized as
expectations of a local observable $X$. Here we show that (most of)  
the gap
between these extreme expected values is forbidden: There are no  
shift-ergodic
Gibbs states for which the expectation of $X$ lies deep inside the  
gap. We
point out several recent results based on chessboard estimates where  
our main
theorems provide important additional information concerning the  
structure of
the set of possible thermodynamic equilibria.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math-ph/0505011

---------------------------------------------------------------

3460. A CLASS OF REMARKABLE SUBMARTINGALES (III): MULTIPLICATIVE   
DECOMPOSITIONS AND FREQUENCY OF VANISHING OF NONNEGATIVE SUBMARTINGALES

Ashkan Nikeghbali

In this paper, we establish a multiplicative decomposition formula for
nonnegative local martingales and use it to characterize the set of  
continuous
local submartingales $Y$ of the form $Y=N+A$, where the measure $dA$  
is carried
by the set of zeros of $Y$. In particular, we shall see that in the  
set of all
local submartingales with the same martingale part in the multiplicative
decomposition, these submartingales are the smallest ones. We also  
study some
integrability questions in the multiplicative decomposition and  
interpret the
notion of saturated sets in the light of our results.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0506369

---------------------------------------------------------------

3461. ORIENTED PERCOLATION IN ONE-DIMENSIONAL BETA |X-Y|^2, BETA > 1   
RANDOM-CLUSTER MODEL

D. H. U. Marchetti and  V. Sidoravicius and M. E. Vares

We consider the one-dimensional long-range Fortuin--Kasteleyn random- 
cluster
model, generated by the edge occupation probabilities p_{<x,y>} = p  
if |x-y| =
1, 1 - exp{-beta |x-y|^2} otherwise, and weighting factor kappa \geq  
1. We
prove the occurrence of oriented percolation when beta>1 and kappa  
\geq 1,
provided p is chosen sufficiently close to 1. We also show that the  
oriented
truncated connectivity tau ^{prime}(x,y) satisfies tau ^{prime}(x,y)  
\leq C
|x-y|^{-theta} with theta = min(2(beta eta -1),2) where eta = eta(p)  
\nearrow 1
as p \nearrow 1.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0506404

---------------------------------------------------------------

3462. FAST COMPUTATION OF THE EXPECTED LOSS OF A LOAN PORTFOLIO  
TRANCHE IN THE  GAUSSIAN FACTOR MODEL: USING HERMITE EXPANSIONS FOR  
HIGHER ACCURACY

P.Okunev

We propose a fast algorithm for computing the expected tranche loss  
in the
Gaussian factor model. We test it on portfolios ranging in size from  
25 (the
size of DJ iTraxx Australia) to 100 (the size of DJCDX.NA.HY) with a  
single
factor Gaussian model and show that the algorithm gives accurate  
results. The
algorithm proposed here is an extension of the algorithm proposed in  
\cite{PO}.
The advantage of the new algorithm is that it works well for  
portfolios of
smaller size for which the normal approximation proposed in \cite{PO}  
in not
sufficiently accurate. The algorithm is intended as an alternative to  
the much
slower Fourier transform based methods \cite{MD}.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.ST/0506378

---------------------------------------------------------------

3463. A STOCHASTIC PERTURBATION OF INVISCID FLOWS

Gautam Iyer

We consider a stochastic flow with drift $u$ and diffusion coefficient
$\sqrt{2 \nu}$. We demand that the drift be recovered from the flow  
map using
the Weber formula, as in the Eulerian-Lagrangian formulation of the  
Euler
equations. In the absence of diffusion, this will yield the Euler  
equations. We
first prove the existence of such stochastic flows, and that the  
expected value
of this process approximates the Navier-Stokes equations (with  
viscosity $\nu$)
to order $O(t^{3/2})$. As a result of our estimates we also obtain a  
local
existence and uniqueness results for the Navier-Stokes equations.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.AP/0505066

---------------------------------------------------------------

3464. MODERATE DEVIATIONS AND LAWS OF THE ITERATED LOGARITHM FOR THE   
RENORMALIZED SELF-INTERSECTION LOCAL TIMES OF PLANAR RANDOM WALKS

Richard F. Bass and  Xia Chen and  and Jay Rosen

Let B_n be the number of self-intersections of a symmetric random  
walk with
finite second moments in the integer planar lattice. We obtain moderate
deviation estimates for B_n - E B_n and E B_n- B_n, which are given  
in terms of
the best constant of a certain Gagliardo-Nirenberg inequality. We  
also prove
the corresponding laws of the iterated logarithm.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0506414

---------------------------------------------------------------

3465. SMOOTHENING EFFECT OF QUENCHED DISORDER ON POLYMER DEPINNING  
TRANSITIONS

G. Giacomin (1) and  F. L. Toninelli (2) ((1) Universite' de Paris 7  
and  (2)  ENS Lyon, UMR--CNRS 5672)

We consider general disordered models of pinning of directed polymers  
on a
defect line. This class contains in particular the disordered
$(1+1)$--dimensional interface wetting model, a version of the  
Poland--Scheraga
model of DNA denaturation and other $(1+d)$--dimensional polymers in
interaction with flat interfaces. We consider also the case of  
copolymers with
adsorption at a selective interface.
   Under quite general conditions, these models are known to have a
(de)localization transition at some critical line in the phase  
diagram. In this
work we prove in particular that, as soon as disorder is present, the
transition is at least of second order, in the sense that the free  
energy is
differentiable at the critical line, so that the order parameter  
vanishes
continuously at the transition. On the other hand, it is known that the
corresponding non--disordered models can have a first order (de) 
localization
transition, with a discontinuous first derivative. Our result shows  
therefore
that the presence of the disorder has really a smoothening effect on the
transition.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0506431

---------------------------------------------------------------

3466. ON A PROBLEM OF K. MAHLER: DIOPHANTINE APPROXIMATION AND CANTOR  
SETS

Jason Levesley and  Cem Salp and Sanju Velani

Let $K$ denote the middle third Cantor set and ${\cal A}:= \{3^n : n  
= 0,1,2,
 >... \} $. Given a real, positive function $\psi$ let $ W_{\cal A} 
(\psi)$
denote the set of real numbers $x$ in the unit interval for which  
there exist
infinitely many $(p,q) \in \Z \times {\cal A} $ such that $ |x - p/q|  
< \psi(q)
$. The analogue of the Hausdorff measure version of the Duffin-Schaeffer
conjecture is established for $ W_{\cal A}(\psi) \cap K $. One of the
consequences of this is that there exist very well approximable  
numbers, other
than Liouville numbers, in $K$ -- an assertion attributed to K. Mahler.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.NT/0505074

---------------------------------------------------------------

3467. GAUSSIAN ESTIMATES FOR SYMMETRIC SIMPLE EXCLUSION PROCESSES

C. Landim

We prove Gaussian tail estimates for the transition probability of $n$
particles evolving as symmetric exclusion processes on $\bb Z^d$,  
improving
results obtained in \cite{l}. We derive from this result a non- 
equilibrium
Boltzmann-Gibbs principle for the symmetric simple exclusion process in
dimension 1 starting from a product measure with slowly varying  
parameter.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0505089

---------------------------------------------------------------

3468. THE PHASE TRANSITION IN INHOMOGENEOUS RANDOM GRAPHS

Bela Bollobas and  Svante Janson and  Oliver Riordan

We introduce a very general model of an inhomogenous random graph with
independence between the edges, which scales so that the number of  
edges is
linear in the number of vertices. This scaling corresponds to the p=c/ 
n scaling
for G(n,p) used to study the phase transition; also, it seems to be a  
property
of many large real-world graphs. Our model includes as special cases  
many
models previously studied.
   We show that under one very weak assumption (that the expected  
number of
edges is `what it should be'), many properties of the model can be  
determined,
in particular the critical point of the phase transition, and the  
size of the
giant component above the transition. We do this by relating our  
random graphs
to branching processes, which are much easier to analyze.
   We also consider other properties of the model, showing, for  
example, that
when there is a giant component, it is `stable': for a typical random  
graph, no
matter how we add or delete o(n) edges, the size of the giant  
component does
not change by more than o(n). We believe that this result is new even  
for the
classical graph G(n,c/n), in which case the proof is much simpler.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0504589

---------------------------------------------------------------

3469. SUPERDIFFUSIVITY OF TWO DIMENSIONAL LATTICE GAS MODELS

C. Landim and  J. A. Ramirez and  H.-T. Yau

It was proved \cite{EMYa, QY} that stochastic lattice gas dynamics  
converge
to the Navier-Stokes equations in dimension $d=3$ in the  
incompressible limits.
In particular, the viscosity is finite. We proved that, on the other  
hand, the
viscosity for a two dimensional lattice gas model diverges faster  
than $\log
\log t$. Our argument indicates that the correct divergence rate is $ 
(\log
t)^{1/2}$. This problem is closely related to the logarithmic  
correction of the
time decay rate for the velocity auto-correlation function of a tagged
particle.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0505090

---------------------------------------------------------------

3470. NONEQUILIBRIUM CENTRAL LIMIT THEOREM FOR A TAGGED PARTICLE IN  
SYMMETRIC  SIMPLE EXCLUSION

M. D. Jara and  C. Landim

We prove a nonequilibirum central limit theorem for the position of a  
tagged
particle in the one-dimensional nearest-neighbor symmetric simple  
exclusion
process under diffusive scaling starting from a Bernoulli product  
measure
associated to a smooth profile $\rho_0:\bb R\to [0,1]$.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0505091

---------------------------------------------------------------

3471. A MICROSCOPIC MODEL FOR STEFAN'S MELTING AND FREEZING PROBLEM

Claudio Landim and Glauco Valle

We study a class of one-dimensional interacting particle systems with  
random
boundaries as a microscopic model for Stefan's melting and freezing  
problem. We
prove that under diffusive rescaling these particle systems exhibit a
hydrodynamic behavior described by the solution of a Cauchy-Stefan  
problem.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0505092

---------------------------------------------------------------

3472. A DETERMINANTAL FORMULA FOR THE GOE TRACY-WIDOM DISTRIBUTION

Patrik L. Ferrari (1) and Herbert Spohn (1) ((1) TU-Muenchen)

Investigating the long time asymptotics of the totally asymmetric simple
exclusion process, Sasamoto obtains rather indirectly a formula for  
the GOE
Tracy-Widom distribution. We establish that his novel formula indeed  
agrees
with more standard expressions.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math-ph/0505012

---------------------------------------------------------------

3473. ASYMPTOTIC ANALYSIS OF LOSSES IN THE $GI/M/M/N$ QUEUEING SYSTEM  
AS $N$  INCREASES TO INFINITY

Vyacheslav M. Abramov

The paper studies asymptotic behavior of the loss probability for the
$GI/M/m/n$ queueing system as $n$ increases to infinity. The approach  
of the
paper is based on applications of classic results of Tak\'acs (1967)  
and the
Tauberian theorem with remainder of Postnikov (1979-1980) associated  
with the
recurrence relation of convolution type. The main result of the paper is
associated with asymptotic behavior of the loss probability.  
Specifically it is
shown that in some cases (precisely described in the paper) where the  
load of
the system approaches 1 from the left and $n$ increases to infinity,  
the loss
probability of the $GI/M/m/n$ queue becomes asymptotically  
independent of the
parameter $m$.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0505127

---------------------------------------------------------------

3474. COMPUTABLE INFINITE DIMENSIONAL FILTERS WITH APPLICATIONS TO  
DISCRETIZED  DIFFUSION PROCESSES

Mireille Chaleyat-Maurel (PMA and  MAP5) and  Valentine Genon-Catalot  
(MAP5)

Let us consider a pair signal-observation ((xn,yn),n 0) where the  
unobserved
signal (xn) is a Markov chain and the observed component is such  
that, given
the whole sequence (xn), the random variables (yn) are independent  
and the
conditional distribution of yn only depends on the corresponding  
state variable
xn. The main problems raised by these observations are the prediction  
and
filtering of (xn). We introduce sufficient conditions allowing to obtain
computable filters using mixtures of distributions. The filter system  
may be
finite or infinite dimensional. The method is applied to the case  
where the
signal xn = Xn is a discrete sampling of a one dimensional diffusion  
process:
Concrete models are proved to fit in our conditions. Moreover, for these
models, exact likelihood inference based on the observation  
(y0,...,yn) is
feasable.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0505153

---------------------------------------------------------------

3475. SCHOENBERG'S THEOREM VIA THE LAW OF LARGE NUMBERS

Davar Khoshnevisan

A classical theorem of S. Bochner states that a function
   $f:R^n \to C$ is the Fourier transform of a finite Borel measure  
if and only
if $f$ is positive definite. In 1938, I. Schoenberg found a beautiful  
converse
to Bochner's theorem.
   We present a non-technical derivation of of Schoenberg's theorem  
that relies
chiefly on the law of large numbers of classical probability theory.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0504603

---------------------------------------------------------------

3476. RANDOM SYMMETRIC MATRICES ARE ALMOST SURELY NON-SINGULAR

Kevin Costello and  Terence Tao and  Van Vu

Let $Q_n$ denote a random symmetric $n$ by $n$ matrix, whose upper  
diagonal
entries are i.i.d. Bernoulli random variables (which take values 0  
and 1 with
probability 1/2). We prove that $Q_n$ is non-singular with probability
$1-O(n^{-1/8+\delta})$ for any fixed $\delta > 0$. The proof uses a  
quadratic
version of Littlewood-Offord type results concerning the concentration
functions of random variables and can be extended for more general  
models of
random matrices.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0505156

---------------------------------------------------------------

3477. REGENERATIVE COMPOSITIONS IN THE CASE OF SLOW VARIATION

Andrew D. Barbour and Alexander V. Gnedin

For $S$ a subordinator and $\Pi_n$ an independent Poisson process of
intensity $ne^{-x}, x>0,$ we are interested in the number $K_n$ of  
gaps in the
range of $S$ that are hit by at least one point of $\Pi_n$. Extending  
previous
studies in \cite{Bernoulli, GPYI, GPYII} we focus on the case when  
the tail of
the L{\'e}vy measure of $S$ is slowly varying. We view $K_n$ as the  
terminal
value of a random process ${\cal K}_n$, and provide an asymptotic  
analysis of
the fluctuations of ${\cal K}_n$, as $n\to\infty$, for a wide  
spectrum of
situations.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0505171

---------------------------------------------------------------

3478. LOGARITHMIC SOBOLEV INEQUALITIES AND CONCENTRATION OF MEASURE  
FOR CONVEX  FUNCTIONS AND POLYNOMIAL CHAOSES

Radoslaw Adamczak

We prove logarithmic Sobolev inequalities and concentration results for
convex functions and a class of product random vectors. The results  
are used to
derive tail and moment inequalities for chaos variables (in spirit of  
Talagrand
and Arcones, Gine). We also show that the same proof may be used for  
chaoses
generated by log-concave random variables, recovering results by  
Lochowski and
present an application to exponential integrability of Rademacher chaos.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0505175

---------------------------------------------------------------

3479. GENERALIZED ITO FORMULAE AND SPACE-TIME LEBESGUE-STIELTJES  
INTEGRALS OF  LOCAL TIMES

K.D. Elworthy and  A. Truman and  H.Z. Zhao

Generalised Ito formulae are proved for time dependent functions of
continuous real valued semi-martingales.The conditions involve left  
space and
time first derivatives, with the left space derivative required to  
have locally
bounded 2-dimensional variation. In particular a class of functions with
discontinuous first derivative is included. An estimate of Krylov allows
further weakening of these conditions when the semi-martingale is a  
diffusion.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0505195

---------------------------------------------------------------

3480. A GENERALIZED IT$\HAT {\RM O}$'S FORMULA IN TWO-DIMENSIONS AND   
STOCHASTIC LEBESGUE-STIELTJES INTEGRALS

Chunrong Feng and  Huaizhong Zhao

A generalized It${\hat {\rm o}}$ formula for time dependent functions of
two-dimensional continuous semi-martingales is proved. The formula  
uses the
local time of each coordinate process of the semi-martingale, left  
space and
time first derivatives and second derivative $\nabla_1^- \nabla_2^-f$  
only
which are assumed to be of locally bounded variation in certain  
variables, and
stochastic Lebesgue-Stieltjes integrals of two parameters.The two- 
parameter
integral is defined as a natural generalization of the It${\hat {\rm  
o}}$
integral and Lebesgue-Stieltjes integral through a type of It${\hat  
{\rm o}}$
isometry formula.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0505196

---------------------------------------------------------------

3481. RELATIVE DIVERGENCE MEASURES AND INFORMATION INEQUALITIES

Inder Jeet Taneja

There are many information and divergence measures exist in the  
literature on
information theory and statistics. The most famous among them are
Kullback-Leiber's (1951)relative information and Jeffreys (1946) J- 
divergence,
Information radius or Jensen difference divergence measure due to  
Sibson (1969)
also known in the literature. Burbea and Rao (1982) has also found its
applications in the literature. Taneja (1995) studied another kind of
divergence measure based on arithmetic and geometric means. These three
divergence measures bear a good relationship among each other. But  
there are
another measures arising due to J-divergence, JS-divergence and AG- 
divergence.
These measures we call here relative divergence measures or non- 
symmetric
divergence measures. Here our aim is to obtain bounds on symmetric and
non-symmetric divergence measures in terms of relative information of  
type s
using properties of Csiszar's f-divergence.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0505204

---------------------------------------------------------------

3482. PAINLEVE FORMULAS OF THE LIMITING DISTRIBUTIONS FOR NON-NULL  
COMPLEX  SAMPLE COVARIANCE MATRICES

Jinho Baik

In a recent study of large non-null sample covariance matrices, a new
sequence of functions generalizing the GUE Tracy-Widom distribution  
of random
matrix theory was obtained. This paper derives Painlev\'e formulas of  
these
functions and use them to prove that they are indeed distribution  
functions.
Applications of these new distribution functions to last passage  
percolation,
queues in tandem and totally asymmetric simple exclusion process are  
also
discussed. As a part of the proof, a representation of orthogonal  
polynomials
on the unit circle in terms of an operator on a discrete set is  
presented.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0504606

---------------------------------------------------------------

3483. CLASSICAL SOLUTIONS TO REACTION-DIFFUSION SYSTEMS FOR HEDGING  
PROBLEMS  WITH INTERACTING ITO AND POINT PROCESSES

Dirk Becherer and Martin Schweizer

We use probabilistic methods to study classical solutions for systems of
interacting semilinear parabolic partial differential equations. In a  
modeling
framework for a financial market with interacting Ito and point  
processes, such
PDEs are shown to provide a natural description for the solution of  
hedging and
valuation problems for contingent claims with a recursive payoff  
structure.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0505208

---------------------------------------------------------------

3484. DRIFT RATE CONTROL OF A BROWNIAN PROCESSING SYSTEM

Bar Ata and  J. M. Harrison and L. A. Shepp

A system manager dynamically controls a diffusion process Z that  
lives in a
finite interval [0,b]. Control takes the form of a negative drift  
rate \theta
that is chosen from a fixed set A of available values. The controlled  
process
evolves according to the differential relationship dZ=dX-\theta(Z) dt 
+dL-dU,
where X is a (0,\sigma) Brownian motion, and L and U are increasing  
processes
that enforce a lower reflecting barrier at Z=0 and an upper  
reflecting barrier
at Z=b, respectively. The cumulative cost process increases according  
to the
differential relationship d\xi =c(\theta(Z)) dt+p dU, where c(\cdot)  
is a
nondecreasing cost of control and p>0 is a penalty rate associated with
displacement at the upper boundary. The objective is to minimize long- 
run
average cost. This problem is solved explicitly, which allows one to  
also solve
the following, essentially equivalent formulation: minimize the long-run
average cost of control subject to an upper bound constraint on the  
average
rate at which U increases. The two special problem features that  
allow an
explicit solution are the use of a long-run average cost criterion,  
as opposed
to a discounted cost criterion, and the lack of state-related costs  
other than
boundary displacement penalties. The application of this theory to power
control in wireless communication is discussed.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0505210

---------------------------------------------------------------

3485. SAMPLE-PATH LARGE DEVIATIONS FOR TANDEM AND PRIORITY QUEUES  
WITH  GAUSSIAN INPUTS

Michel Mandjes and Miranda van Uitert

This paper considers Gaussian flows multiplexed in a queueing network. A
single node being a useful but often incomplete setting, we examine more
advanced models. We focus on a (two-node) tandem queue, fed by a  
large number
of Gaussian inputs. With service rates and buffer sizes at both nodes  
scaled
appropriately, Schilder's sample-path large-deviations theorem can be  
applied
to calculate the asymptotics of the overflow probability of the  
second queue.
More specifically, we derive a lower bound on the exponential decay  
rate of
this overflow probability and present an explicit condition for the  
lower bound
to match the exact decay rate. Examples show that this condition  
holds for a
broad range of frequently used Gaussian inputs. The last part of the  
paper
concentrates on a model for a single node, equipped with a priority  
scheduling
policy. We show that the analysis of the tandem queue directly  
carries over to
this priority queueing system.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0505214

---------------------------------------------------------------

3486. THE MOTION OF A SECOND CLASS PARTICLE FOR THE TASEP STARTING  
FROM A  DECREASING SHOCK PROFILE

Thomas Mountford and Herve Guiol

We prove a strong law of large numbers for the location of the second  
class
particle in a totally asymmetric exclusion process when the process  
is started
initially from a decreasing shock. This completes a study initiated  
in Ferrari
and Kipnis [Ann. Inst. H. Poincare Probab. Statist. 13 (1995) 143-154].


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0505216

---------------------------------------------------------------

3487. METRIC BASED UP-SCALING

Houman Owhadi and Lei Zhang

Heterogeneous multi-scale structures can be found everywhere in  
nature. Can
these structures be accurately simulated at a coarse level?  
Homogenization
theory allows us to do so under the assumptions of ergodicity and scale
separation by transferring bulk (averaged) information from sub-grid  
scales to
computational scales. Can we get rid of these assumptions? can we  
compress a
PDE with arbitrary coefficients? Surprisingly the answer is yes, is  
rigorous
and based on a new form of compensation. We will consider divergence  
form
elliptic operators in dimension $n\geq 2$ to introduce this method.  
Although
solutions of these operators are only H\"{o}lder continuous, we show  
that their
regularity with respect to Harmonic mappings is $C^{1,\alpha}$. It  
follows that
these PDEs can be up-scaled by transferring a new metric in addition to
traditional bulk quantities from small scales into coarse scales and  
error
bounds can be given.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.NA/0505223

---------------------------------------------------------------

3488. BOOTSTRAP CENTRAL LIMIT THEOREM FOR CHAINS OF INFINITE ORDER  
VIA MARKOV  APPROXIMATIONS

P. Collet and  D. Duarte and A. Galves

We present a new approach to the bootstrap for chains of infinite order
taking values on a finite alphabet. It is based on a sequential  
Bootstrap
Central Limit Theorem for the sequence of canonical Markov  
approximations of
the chain of infinite order. Combined with previous results on the  
rate of
approximation this leads to a Central Limit Theorem for the bootstrapped
estimator of the sample mean which is the main result of this paper.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0505232

---------------------------------------------------------------

3489. BOUNDS ON TRIANGULAR DISCRIMINATION, HARMONIC MEAN AND  
SYMMETRIC  CHI-SQUARE DIVERGENCES

Inder Jeet Taneja

There are many information and divergence measures exist in the  
literature on
information theory and statistics. The most famous among them are
Kullback-Leiber relative information and Jeffreys J-divergence. The  
measures
like, Bhattacharya distance, Hellinger discrimination, Chi-square  
divergence,
triangular discrimination and harmonic mean divergence are also  
famous in the
literature on statistics. In this paper we have obtained bounds on  
triangular
discrimination and symmetric chi-square divergence in terms of relative
information of type s using Csiszar's f-divergence. A relationship among
triangular discrimination and harmonic mean divergence is also given.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0505238

---------------------------------------------------------------

3490. ASYMPTOTIC BEHAVIOR OF A METAPOPULATION MODEL

A. D. Barbour and A. Pugliese

We study the behavior of an infinite system of ordinary differential
equations modeling the dynamics of a metapopulation, a set of (discrete)
populations subject to local catastrophes and connected via migration  
under a
mean field rule; the local population dynamics follow a generalized  
logistic
law. We find a threshold below which all the solutions tend to total  
extinction
of the metapopulation, which is then the only equilibrium; above the  
threshold,
there exists a unique equilibrium with positive population, which,  
under an
additional assumption, is globally attractive. The proofs employ  
tools from the
theories of Markov processes and of dynamical systems.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0505240

---------------------------------------------------------------

3491. ON THE CONVERGENCE FROM DISCRETE TO CONTINUOUS TIME IN AN  
OPTIMAL  STOPPING PROBLEM

Paul Dupuis and Hui Wang

We consider the problem of optimal stopping for a one-dimensional  
diffusion
process. Two classes of admissible stopping times are considered. The  
first
class consists of all nonanticipating stopping times that take values in
[0,\infty], while the second class further restricts the set of  
allowed values
to the discrete grid {nh:n=0,1,2,...,\infty} for some parameter h>0.  
The value
functions for the two problems are denoted by V(x) and V^h(x),  
respectively. We
identify the rate of convergence of V^h(x) to V(x) and the rate of  
convergence
of the stopping regions, and provide simple formulas for the rate  
coefficients.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0505241

---------------------------------------------------------------

3492. EXCHANGEABLE, GIBBS AND EQUILIBRIUM MEASURES FOR MARKOV SUBSHIFTS

Jon. Aaronson and  Hitoshi Nakada

We study a class of strongly irreducible, multidimensional, topological
Markov shifts, comparing two notions of "symmetric measure":  
exchangeability
and the Gibbs property. We show that equilibrium measures for such  
shifts
(unique and weak Bernoulli in the one dimensional case) exhibit a  
variety of
spectral properties.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0505011

---------------------------------------------------------------

3493. ON UTILITY MAXIMIZATION IN DISCRETE-TIME FINANCIAL MARKET MODELS

Miklos Rasonyi and Lukasz Stettner

We consider a discrete-time financial market model with finite time  
horizon
and give conditions which guarantee the existence of an optimal  
strategy for
the problem of maximizing expected terminal utility. Equivalent  
martingale
measures are constructed using optimal strategies.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0505243

---------------------------------------------------------------

3494. ACCELERATING DIFFUSIONS

Chii-Ruey Hwang and  Shu-Yin Hwang-Ma and Shuenn-Jyi Sheu

Let U be a given function defined on R^d and \pi(x) be a density  
function
proportional to \exp -U(x). The following diffusion X(t) is often  
used to
sample from \pi(x), dX(t)=-\nabla U(X(t)) dt+\sqrt2 dW(t),\qquad X(0) 
=x_0. To
accelerate the convergence, a family of diffusions with \pi(x) as  
their common
equilibrium is considered, dX(t)=\bigl(-\nabla U(X(t))+C(X(t))\bigr)  
dt+\sqrt2
dW(t),\qquad X(0)=x_0. Let L_C be the corresponding infinitesimal  
generator.
The spectral gap of L_C in L^2(\pi) (\lambda (C)), and the  
convergence exponent
of X(t) to \pi in variational norm (\rho(C)), are used to describe the
convergence rate, where \lambda(C)= Sup{real part of \mu\dvtx\mu is  
in the
spectrum of L_C, \mu is not zero}, {-2.8cm}\rho(C) = Inf\biggl{\rho 
\dvtx\int |
p(t,x,y) -\pi(y)| dy \le g(x) e^{\rho t}\biggr}.Roughly speaking, L_C  
is a
perturbation of the self-adjoint L_0 by an antisymmetric operator C 
\cdot\nabla,
where C is weighted divergence free. We prove that \lambda (C)\le  
\lambda (0)
and equality holds only in some rare situations. Furthermore, \rho(C)\le
\lambda (C) and equality holds for C=0. In other words, adding an  
extra drift,
C(x), accelerates convergence. Related problems are also discussed.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0505245

---------------------------------------------------------------

3495. CRAMER'S ESTIMATE FOR A REFLECTED LEVY PROCESS

R. A. Doney and R. A. Maller

The natural analogue for a Levy process of Cramer's estimate for a  
reflected
random walk is a statement about the exponential rate of decay of the  
tail of
the characteristic measure of the height of an excursion above the  
minimum. We
establish this estimate for any Levy process with finite negative  
mean which
satisfies Cramer's condition, and give an explicit formula for the  
limiting
constant. Just as in the random walk case, this leads to a Poisson limit
theorem for the number of ``high excursions.''


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0505246

---------------------------------------------------------------

3496. SUMMATION TEST FOR GAP PENALTIES AND STRONG LAW OF THE LOCAL  
ALIGNMENT  SCORE

Hock Peng Chan

A summation test is proposed to determine admissible types of gap  
penalties
for logarithmic growth of the local alignment score. We also define a
converging sequence of log moment generating functions that provide the
constants associated with the large deviation rate and logarithmic  
strong law
of the local alignment score and the asymptotic number of matches in the
optimal local alignment.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0505247

---------------------------------------------------------------

3497. THE BRANCHING PROCESS WITH LOGISTIC GROWTH

Amaury Lambert

In order to model random density-dependence in population dynamics, we
construct the random analogue of the well-known logistic process in the
branching process' framework. This density-dependence corresponds to
intraspecific competition pressure, which is ubiquitous in ecology, and
translates mathematically into a quadratic death rate. The logistic  
branching
process, or LB-process, can thus be seen as (the mass of) a  
fragmentation
process (corresponding to the branching mechanism) combined with  
constant
coagulation rate (the death rate is proportional to the number of  
possible
coalescing pairs). In the continuous state-space setting, the LB- 
process is a
time-changed (in Lamperti's fashion) Ornstein-Uhlenbeck type process.  
We obtain
similar results for both constructions: when natural deaths do not  
occur, the
LB-process converges to a specified distribution; otherwise, it goes  
extinct
a.s. In the latter case, we provide the expectation and the Laplace  
transform
of the absorption time, as a functional of the solution of a Riccati
differential equation. We also show that the quadratic regulatory  
term allows
the LB-process to start at infinity, despite the fact that births occur
infinitely often as the initial state goes to \infty. This result can  
be viewed
as an extension of the pure-death process starting from infinity  
associated to
Kingman's coalescent, when some independent fragmentation is added.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0505249

---------------------------------------------------------------

3498. THE OSCILLATORY DISTRIBUTION OF DISTANCES IN RANDOM TRIES

Costas A. Christophi and Hosam M. Mahmoud

We investigate \Delta_n, the distance between randomly selected pairs of
nodes among n keys in a random trie, which is a kind of digital tree.
Analytical techniques, such as the Mellin transform and an excursion  
between
poissonization and depoissonization, capture small fluctuations in  
the mean and
variance of these random distances. The mean increases  
logarithmically in the
number of keys, but curiously enough the variance remains O(1), as n 
\to\infty.
It is demonstrated that the centered random variable
\Delta_n^*=\Delta_n-\lfloor2\log_2n\rfloor does not have a limit  
distribution,
but rather oscillates between two distributions.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0505259

---------------------------------------------------------------

3499. SUBGEOMETRIC ERGODICITY OF STRONG MARKOV PROCESSES

G. Fort and G. O. Roberts

We derive sufficient conditions for subgeometric f-ergodicity of  
strongly
Markovian processes. We first propose a criterion based on modulated  
moment of
some delayed return-time to a petite set. We then formulate a  
criterion for
polynomial f-ergodicity in terms of a drift condition on the generator.
Applications to specific processes are considered, including Langevin  
tempered
diffusions on R^n and storage models.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0505260

---------------------------------------------------------------

3500. ASYMPTOTIC RESULTS ON THE MOMENTS OF THE RATIO OF THE RANDOM  
SUM OF  SQUARES TO THE SQUARE OF THE RANDOM SUM

S.A. Ladoucette

Let \{X_1, X_2, ...\} be a sequence of positive independent and  
identically
distributed random variables of Pareto-type with index \alpha>0 and  
let \{N(t);
t\geq 0\} be a mixed Poisson process independent of the X_i's. For t 
\geq 0,
define T_{N(t)}:=\frac{X_1^2 + X_2^2 + ... + X_{N(t)}^2} {(X_1 + X_2  
+ ... +
X_{N(t)})^2} if N(t)\geq 1 and T_{N(t)}:=0 otherwise.
   We derive the limiting behavior of the k-th moment of T_{N(t)},
k\in\mathbb{N}, by using the theory of functions of regular variation  
and an
integral representation for \mathbb{E}\{T_{N(t)}^k\}. We also point  
out the
connection between T_{N(t)} and the sample coefficient of variation  
which is a
popular risk measure in practical applications.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0505265

---------------------------------------------------------------

3501. A CAPTURE PROBLEM IN BROWNIAN MOTION AND EIGENVALUES OF  
SPHERICAL  DOMAINS

Jesse Ratzkin and Andrejs Treibergs

We resolve a question of Bramson and Griffeath by showing that the  
expected
capture time of four independent Brownian predators pursuing one  
Brownian prey
on a line is finite. Our main tool is an eigenvalue estimate for a  
particular
spherical domain, which we obtain by a coning construction and domain
perturbation.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0505274

---------------------------------------------------------------

3502. ITERATED BROWNIAN MOTION IN BOUNDED DOMAINS IN R^N

Erkan Nane

Let $\tau_{D}(Z) $ is the first exit time of iterated Brownian motion  
from a
domain $D \subset \RR{R}^{n}$ started at $z\in D$ and let $P_{z}[\tau_ 
{D}(Z)
 >t]$ be its distribution. In this paper we establish the exact  
asymptotics of
$P_{z}[\tau_{D}(Z) >t]$ over bounded domains as an extension of the  
result in
DeBlassie \cite{deblassie}, for $z\in D$ $$ P_{z}[\tau_{D}(Z)>t] 
\approx t^{1/2}
\exp(-{3/2}\pi^{2/3}\lambda_{D}^{2/3}t^{1/3}), as t\to\infty . $$ We  
also study
asymptotics of the life time of Brownian-time Brownian motion (BTBM),
$Z^{1}_{t}=z+X(Y(t))$, where $X_{t}$ and $Y_{t}$ are independent
one-dimensional Brownian motions.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0505026

---------------------------------------------------------------

3503. SPECTRAL PROPERTIES OF THE LAPLACIAN ON BOND-PERCOLATION GRAPHS

Werner Kirsch and  Peter M\"uller

Bond-percolation graphs are random subgraphs of the d-dimensional  
integer
lattice generated by a standard bond-percolation process. The  
associated graph
Laplacians, subject to Dirichlet or Neumann conditions at cluster  
boundaries,
represent bounded, self-adjoint, ergodic random operators with off- 
diagonal
disorder. They possess almost surely the non-random spectrum [0,4d]  
and a
self-averaging integrated density of states. The integrated density  
of states
is shown to exhibit Lifshits tails at both spectral edges in the
non-percolating phase. While the characteristic exponent of the  
Lifshits tail
for the Dirichlet (Neumann) Laplacian at the lower (upper) spectral  
edge equals
d/2, and thus depends on the spatial dimension, this is not the case  
at the
upper (lower) spectral edge, where the exponent equals 1/2.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math-ph/0407047

---------------------------------------------------------------

3504. A NOTE ON MULTITYPE BRANCHING PROCESSES WITH IMMIGRATION IN A  
RANDOM  ENVIRONMENT

Alexander Roitershtein

We consider a multitype branching process with immigration in a random
environment introduced by Key in [12]. It was shown by Key that the  
branching
process is subcritical in the sense that it converges to a proper  
limit law. We
complement this result by a strong law of large numbers and a central  
limit
theorem for the partial sums of the process. In addition, we study the
asymptotic behavior of oscillations of the branching process, i.e. of  
the
random segments between successive times when the extinction occurs  
and the
process starts afresh with the next wave of the immigration.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0505292

---------------------------------------------------------------

3505. ESTIMATES OF MOMENTS AND TAILS OF GAUSSIAN CHAOSES

Rafal Latala

We derive two sided estimates on moments and tails of homogenous  
Gaussian
chaoses of any order. Estimates are exact up to constants depending  
only on the
order of chaoses.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0505313

---------------------------------------------------------------

3506. NON STOPPING TIMES AND STOPPING THEOREMS

Ashkan Nikeghbali

Given a random time, we characterize the set of martingales for which  
the
stopping theorems still hold. We also investigate how the stopping  
theorems are
modified when we consider arbitrary random times. To this end, we  
introduce
some families of martingales with remarkable properties. We also  
investigate,
in the Brownian setting, the relationships between a given random  
time and the
underlying Brownian Motion in the progressively enlarged filtration with
respect to this random time.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0505316

---------------------------------------------------------------

3507. LIMITING BEHAVIOR OF A DIFFUSION IN AN ASYMPTOTICALLY STABLE  
ENVIRONMENT

Arvind Singh (PMA)

Let $V$ be a two sided random walk and let $X$ denote a real valued  
diffusion
process with generator ${1/2}e^{V([x])}\frac{d}{dx}(e^{-V([x])}\frac 
{d}{dx})$.
This process is known to be the continuous equivalent of the one  
dimensional
random walk in random environment with potential $V$. Hu and Shi (1997)
described the L\'evy classes of $X$ in the case where $V$ behaves  
approximately
like a Brownian motion. In this paper, based on some fine results on the
fluctuations of random walks and stable processes, we obtain an  
accurate image
of the almost sure limiting behavior of $X$ when $V$ behaves  
asymptotically
like a stable process. These results also apply for the corresponding  
random
walk in random environment.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0505332

---------------------------------------------------------------

3508. THE EFFICIENT EVALUATION OF THE HYPERGEOMETRIC FUNCTION OF A  
MATRIX  ARGUMENT

Plamen Koev and  Alan Edelman

We present new algorithms that efficiently approximate the  
hypergeometric
function of a matrix argument through its expansion as a series of Jack
functions. Our algorithms exploit the combinatorial properties of the  
Jack
function, and have complexity that is only linear in the size of the  
matrix.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0505344

---------------------------------------------------------------

3509. DETERMINANTAL POINT PROCESSES AND FERMIONIC FOCK SPACE

Neretin Yurii A

We construct a canonical embedding of the space $L^2$ over a  
determinantal
point process to the fermionic Fock space. Equivalently, we show that a
determinantal process is the spectral measure for some explicit  
commutative
group of Gaussian operators in the fermionic Fock space.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math-ph/0505041

---------------------------------------------------------------

3510. ON THE BEST CONSTANTS IN SOME NON-COMMUTATIVE MARTINGALE  
INEQUALITIES

Marius Junge and Quanhua Xu

We determine the optimal orders for the best constants in the non- 
commutative
Burkholder-Gundy, Doob and Stein inequalities obtained recently in the
non-commutative martingale theory.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.OA/0505309

---------------------------------------------------------------

3511. SLE COORDINATE CHANGES

Oded Schramm and  David B. Wilson

The purpose of this note is to describe a framework which unifies  
radial,
chordal and dipolar SLE. When the definition of SLE(\kappa;\rho) is  
extended to
the setting where the force points can be in the interior of the  
domain, radial
SLE(\kappa) becomes chordal SLE(\kappa;\rho), with \rho=\kappa-6, and  
vice
versa. We also write down the martingales describing the Radon-Nykodim
derivative of SLE(\kappa;\rho_1,...,\rho_n) with respect to SLE(\kappa).


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0505368

---------------------------------------------------------------

3512. A RESOLUTION OF QUANTUM DYNAMICAL SEMIGROUPS

Anilesh Mohari

We consider a class of quantum dissipative systems governed by a one
parameter completely positive maps on a von-Neumann algebra. We  
introduce a
notion of recurrent and metastable projections for the dynamics and  
prove that
the unit operator can be decomposed into orthogonal projections where  
each
projections are recurrent or metastable for the dynamics.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.OA/0505384

---------------------------------------------------------------

3513. A NETWORK ANALYSIS OF COMMITTEES IN THE UNITED STATES HOUSE OF   
REPRESENTATIVES

Mason A. Porter and  Peter J. Mucha and  M.E.J. Newman and  and Casey  
M. Warmbrand

Network theory provides a powerful tool for the representation and  
analysis
of complex systems of interacting agents. Here we investigate the  
United States
House of Representatives network of committees and subcommittees, with
committees connected according to ``interlocks'' or common  
membership. Analysis
of this network reveals clearly the strong links between different  
committees,
as well as the intrinsic hierarchical structure within the House as a  
whole. We
show that network theory, combined with the analysis of roll call  
votes using
singular value decomposition, successfully uncovers political and
organizational correlations between committees in the House without  
the need to
incorporate other political information.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/nlin.AO/0505043

---------------------------------------------------------------

3514. SOME RANDOM TIMES AND MARTINGALES ASSOCIATED WITH $BES_{0} 
(\DELTA)$  PROCESSES $(0<\DELTA<2)$

Ashkan Nikeghbali

In this paper, we study Bessel processes of dimension $\delta\equiv2 
(1-\mu)$,
with $0<\delta<2$, and some related martingales and random times. Our  
approach
is based on martingale techniques and the general theory of stochastic
processes (unlike the usual approach based on excursion theory),  
although for
$0<\delta<1$, these processes are even not semimartingales. The last  
time
before 1 when a Bessel process hits 0, called $g_{\mu}$, plays a key  
role in
our study: we characterize its conditional distribution and extend Paul
L\'{e}vy's arc sine law and a related result of Jeulin about the  
standard
Brownian Motion. We also introduce some remarkable families of  
martingales
related to the Bessel process, thus obtaining in some cases a one  
parameter
extension of some results of Az\'{e}ma and Yor in the Brownian setting:
martingales which have the same set of zeros as the Bessel process  
and which
satisfy the stopping theorem for $g_{\mu}$, a one parameter extension of
Az\'{e}ma's second martingale, etc. Throughout our study, the local  
time of the
Bessel process also plays a central role and we shall establish some  
of its
elementary properties.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.PR/0505423

---------------------------------------------------------------

3515. ON A FAST, ROBUST ESTIMATOR OF THE MODE: COMPARISONS TO OTHER  
ROBUST  ESTIMATORS WITH APPLICATIONS

David R. Bickel and Rudolf Fruehwirth

Advances in computing power enable more widespread use of the mode,  
which is
a natural measure of central tendency since, as the most probable  
value, it is
not influenced by the tails in the distribution. The properties of the
half-sample mode, which is a simple and fast estimator of the mode of a
continuous distribution, are studied. The half-sample mode is less  
sensitive to
outliers than most other estimators of location, including many other  
low-bias
estimators of the mode. Its breakdown point is one half, equal to  
that of the
median. However, because of its finite rejection point, the half- 
sample mode is
much less sensitive to outliers that are all either greater or less  
than the
other values of the sample. This is confirmed by applying the mode  
estimator
and the median to samples drawn from normal, lognormal, and Pareto
distributions contaminated by outliers. It is also shown that the  
half-sample
mode, in combination with a robust scale estimator, is a highly  
robust starting
point for iterative robust location estimators such as Huber's M- 
estimator. The
half-sample mode can easily be generalized to modal intervals  
containing more
or less than half of the sample. An application of such an estimator  
to the
finding of collision points in high-energy proton-proton interactions is
presented.


http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/math.ST/0505419




More information about the Pas mailing list