Hitting spheres on hyperbolic spaces

Abstract

For a hyperbolic Brownian motion on the Poincar\'e half-plane $\mathbb{H}^2$, starting from a point of hyperbolic coordinates $z=(\eta, \alpha)$ inside a hyperbolic disc $U$ of radius $\bar{\eta}$, we obtain the probability of hitting the boundary $\partial U$ at the point $(\bar \eta,\bar \alpha)$. For $\bar{\eta} \to \infty$ we derive the asymptotic Cauchy hitting distribution on $\partial \mathbb{H}^2$ and for small values of $\eta$ and $\bar \eta$ we obtain the classical Euclidean Poisson kernel. The exit probabilities $\mathbb{P}_z\{T_{\eta_1}<T_{\eta_2}\}$ from a hyperbolic annulus in $\mathbb{H}^2$ of radii $\eta_1$ and $\eta_2$ are derived and the transient behaviour of hyperbolic Brownian motion is considered. Similar probabilities are calculated also for a Brownian motion on the surface of the three dimensional sphere. For the hyperbolic half-space $\mathbb{H}^n$ we obtain the Poisson kernel of a ball in terms of a series involving Gegenbauer polynomials and hypergeometric functions. For small domains in $\mathbb{H}^n$ we obtain the $n$-dimensional Euclidean Poisson kernel. The exit probabilities from an annulus are derived also in the $n$-dimensional case.