First-passage times (FPTs) of two-dimensional Brownian motion have many applications in quantitative finance. However, despite various attempts since the 1960s, there are few analytical solutions available. By solving a nonhomogeneous modified Helmholtz equation in an infinite wedge, we find analytical solutions for the Laplace transforms of FPTs; these Laplace transforms can be inverted numerically. The FPT problems lead to a class of bivariate exponential distributions which are absolute continuous but do not have the memoryless property. We also prove that the density of the absolute difference of FPTs tends to ∞ if and only if the correlation between the two Brownian motions is positive.

In this paper we are concerned with analysing optimal wealth allocation techniques within a defaultable financial market similar to Bielecki and Jang (2007). We study a portfolio optimization problem combining a continuous-time jump market and a defaultable security; and present numerical solutions through the conversion into a Markov decision process and characterization of its value function as a unique fixed point to a contracting operator. In this paper we analyse allocation strategies under several families of utility functions, and highlight significant portfolio selection differences with previously reported results.

When a random field (Xt,t∈ℝ2) is thresholded on a given level u, the excursion set is given by its indicator 1[u, ∞)(Xt). The purpose of this work is to study functionals (as established in stochastic geometry) of these random excursion sets as, e.g. the capacity functional as well as the second moment measure of the boundary length. It extends results obtained for the one-dimensional case to the two-dimensional case, with tools borrowed from crossings theory, in particular, Rice methods, and from integral and stochastic geometry.

We study the asymptotic behavior of a new particle filter approach for the estimation of hidden Markov models. In particular, we develop an algorithm where the latent-state sequence is segmented into multiple shorter portions, with an estimation technique based upon a separate particle filter in each portion. The partitioning facilitates the use of parallel processing, which reduces the wall-clock computational time. Based upon this approach, we introduce new estimators of the latent states and likelihood which have similar or better variance properties compared to estimators derived from standard particle filters. We show that the likelihood function estimator is unbiased, and show asymptotic normality of the underlying estimators.

Natural disasters may have considerable impact on society as well as on the (re-)insurance industry. Max-stable processes are ideally suited for the modelling of the spatial extent of such extreme events, but it is often assumed that there is no temporal dependence. Only a few papers have introduced spatiotemporal max-stable models, extending the Smith, Schlather and Brown‒Resnick spatial processes. These models suffer from two major drawbacks: time plays a similar role to space and the temporal dynamics are not explicit. In order to overcome these defects, we introduce spatiotemporal max-stable models where we partly decouple the influence of time and space in their spectral representations. We introduce both continuous- and discrete-time versions. We then consider particular Markovian cases with a max-autoregressive representation and discuss their properties. Finally, we briefly propose an inference methodology which is tested through a simulation study.

We study large deviation principles for a model of wireless networks consisting of Poisson point processes of transmitters and receivers. To each transmitter we associate a family of connectable receivers whose signal-to-interference-and-noise ratio is larger than a certain connectivity threshold. First, we show a large deviation principle for the empirical measure of connectable receivers associated with transmitters in large boxes. Second, making use of the observation that the receivers connectable to the origin form a Cox point process, we derive a large deviation principle for the rescaled process of these receivers as the connection threshold tends to 0. Finally, we show how these results can be used to develop importance sampling algorithms that substantially reduce the variance for the estimation of probabilities of certain rare events such as users being unable to connect.

The best-choice problem and the duration problem, known as versions of the secretary problem, are concerned with choosing an object from those that appear sequentially. Let (B,p) denote the best-choice problem and (D,p) the duration problem when the total number N of objects is a bounded random variable with prior p=(p1, p2,...,pn) for a known upper bound n. Gnedin (2005) discovered the correspondence relation between these two quite different optimal stopping problems. That is, for any given prior p, there exists another prior q such that (D,p) is equivalent to (B,q). In this paper, motivated by his discovery, we attempt to find the alternate correspondence {p(m),m≥0}, i.e. an infinite sequence of priors such that (D,p(m-1)) is equivalent to (B,p(m)) for all m≥1, starting with p(0)=(0,...,0,1). To be more precise, the duration problem is distinguished into (D1,p) or (D2,p), referred to as model 1 or model 2, depending on whether the planning horizon is N or n. The aforementioned problem is model 1. For model 2 as well, we can find the similar alternate correspondence {p[m],m≥ 0}. We treat both the no-information model and the full-information model and examine the limiting behaviors of their optimal rules and optimal values related to the alternate correspondences as n→∞. A generalization of the no-information model is given. It is worth mentioning that the alternate correspondences for model 1 and model 2 are respectively related to the urn sampling models without replacement and with replacement.

Famously, a d-dimensional, spatially homogeneous random walk whose increments are nondegenerate, have finite second moments, and have zero mean is recurrent if d∈{1,2}, but transient if d≥3. Once spatial homogeneity is relaxed, this is no longer true. We study a family of zero-drift spatially nonhomogeneous random walks (Markov processes) whose increment covariance matrix is asymptotically constant along rays from the origin, and which, in any ambient dimension d≥2, can be adjusted so that the walk is either transient or recurrent. Natural examples are provided by random walks whose increments are supported on ellipsoids that are symmetric about the ray from the origin through the walk's current position; these elliptic random walks generalize the classical homogeneous Pearson‒Rayleigh walk (the spherical case). Our proof of the recurrence classification is based on fundamental work of Lamperti.

We study the optimal financing and dividend distribution problem with restricted dividend rates in a diffusion type surplus model, where the drift and volatility coefficients are general functions of the level of surplus and the external environment regime. The environment regime is modeled by a Markov process. Both capital injection and dividend payments incur expenses. The objective is to maximize the expectation of the total discounted dividends minus the total cost of the capital injection. We prove that it is optimal to inject capital only when the surplus tends to fall below 0 and to pay out dividends at the maximal rate when the surplus is at or above the threshold, dependent on the environment regime.

In this paper we investigate different methods that may be used to compare coherent systems having heterogeneous components. We consider both the case of systems with independent components and the case of systems with dependent components. In the first case, the comparisons are based on the new concept of the survival signature due to Coolen and Coolen-Maturi (2012) which extends the well-known concept of system signatures to the case of components with lifetimes that need not be independent and identically distributed. In the second case, the comparisons are based on the concept of distortion functions. A graphical procedure (called an RR-plot) is proposed as an alternative to the analytical methods when there are two types of components.

We propose a novel theoretical characterization of the optimal 'Gittins index' policy in multi-armed bandit problems with non-Gaussian, infinitely divisible reward distributions. We first construct a continuous-time, conditional Lévy process which probabilistically interpolates the sequence of discrete-time rewards. When the rewards are Gaussian, this approach enables an easy connection to the convenient time-change properties of a Brownian motion. Although no such device is available in general for the non-Gaussian case, we use optimal stopping theory to characterize the value of the optimal policy as the solution to a free-boundary partial integro-differential equation (PIDE). We provide the free-boundary PIDE in explicit form under the specific settings of exponential and Poisson rewards. We also prove continuity and monotonicity properties of the Gittins index in these two problems, and discuss how the PIDE can be solved numerically to find the optimal index value of a given belief state.

Following the approach of standard filtering theory, we analyse investor valuation of firms, when these are modelled as geometric-Brownian state processes that are privately and partially observed, at random (Poisson) times, by agents. Tasked with disclosing forecast values, agents are able purposefully to withhold their observations; explicit filtering formulae are derived for downgrading the valuations in the absence of disclosures. The analysis is conducted for both a solitary firm and m co-dependent firms.

In this paper we uniformly approximate the trajectories of the Cox–Ingersoll–Ross (CIR) process. At a sequence of random times the approximate trajectories will be even exact. In between, the approximation will be uniformly close to the exact trajectory. From a conceptual point of view, the proposed method gives a better quality of approximation in a path-wise sense than standard, or even exact, simulation of the CIR dynamics at some deterministic time grid.

We study random walks whose increments are α-stable distributions with shape parameter 1<α<2. Specifically, assuming a mean increment size which is negative, we provide series expansions in terms of the mean increment size for the probability that the all-time maximum of an α-stable random walk is equal to 0 and, in the totally skewed-to-the-left case of skewness parameter β=-1, for the expected value of the all-time maximum of an α-stable random walk. Our series expansions generalize previous results for Gaussian random walks. Key ingredients in our proofs are Spitzer's identity for random walks, the stability property of α-stable random variables, and Zolotarev's integral representation for the cumulative distribution function of an α-stable random variable. We also discuss an application of our results to a problem arising in queueing theory.

Affine processes possess the property that expectations of exponential affine transformations are given by a set of Riccati differential equations, which is the main feature of this popular class of processes. In this paper we generalise these results for expectations of more general transformations. This is of interest in, e.g. doubly stochastic Markov models, in particular in life insurance. When using affine processes for modelling the transition rates and interest rate, the results presented allow for easy calculation of transition probabilities and expected present values.

In this paper we define and study a new class of multivariate counting processes, named `multivariate generalized Pólya process'. Initially, we define and study the bivariate generalized Pólya process and briefly discuss its reliability application. In order to derive the main properties of the process, we suggest some key properties and an important characterization of the process. Due to these properties and the characterization, the main properties of the bivariate generalized Pólya process are obtained efficiently. The marginal processes of the multivariate generalized Pólya process are shown to be the univariate generalized Pólya processes studied in Cha (2014). Given the history of a marginal process, the conditional property of the other process is also discussed. The bivariate generalized Pólya process is extended to the multivariate case. We define a new dependence concept for multivariate point processes and, based on it, we analyze the dependence structure of the multivariate generalized Pólya process.

We propose a class of random scale-free spatial networks with nested community structures called SHEM and analyze Reed–Frost epidemics with community related independent transmissions. We show that in a specific example of the SHEM the epidemic threshold may be trivial or not as a function of the relation among community sizes, distribution of the number of communities, and transmission rates.

In this paper we are concerned with a stochastic model for the spread of an epidemic in a closed homogeneously mixing population when an infective can go through several stages of infection before being removed. The transitions between stages are governed by either a Markov process or a semi-Markov process. An infective of any stage makes contacts amongst the population at the points of a Poisson process. Our main purpose is to derive the distribution of the final epidemic size and severity, as well as an approximation by branching, using simple matrix analytic methods. Some illustrations are given, including a model with treatment discussed by Gani (2006).

The subject of this paper is the problem of estimating the service time distribution of the M/G/∞ queue from incomplete data on the queue. The goal is to estimate G from observations of the queue-length process at the points of the regular grid on a fixed time interval. We propose an estimator and analyze its accuracy over a family of target service time distributions. An upper bound on the maximal risk is derived. The problem of estimating the arrival rate is considered as well.

The theory of influence and sharp threshold is a key tool in probability and probabilistic combinatorics, with numerous applications. One significant aspect of the theory is directed at identifying the level of generality of the product probability space that accommodates the event under study. We derive the influence inequality for a completely general product space, by establishing a relationship to the Lebesgue cube studied by Bourgain, Kahn, Kalai, Katznelson and Linial (BKKKL) in 1992. This resolves one of the assertions of BKKKL. Our conclusion is valid also in the setting of the generalized influences of Keller.