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Vladislav Vysotsky

Publications and source records attributed to Vladislav Vysotsky.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

A restless time-fractional multiclass queue

We study a single-server priority queue with a finite number of classes, in which the arrivals follow a fractional Poisson process of index $α\in (0,1]$ and the service completions are triggered by an independent fractional Poisson process of index $β\in (0,1]$. Each of the customers arriving is assigned at random to one of the priority classes. This assignment is independent of the rest of the system and follows a fixed probability distribution. Using a time-change representation of a fractional Poisson process, we first give a multinomial thinning decomposition: the total number of arrivals in each class are independent standard Poisson processes of appropriate intensities, time-changed by a common independent random clock that is the inverse of an $α$-stable subordinator. This yields a process-level law of large numbers and a functional central limit theorem for the process of arrivals. For the queueing system itself, we identify process-level scaling limits for the cumulative and individual queue lengths of the classes. We also prove that the queue gets empty infinitely often when $α\le β$, which does include the critical case $α= β$. A final example shows how the model can be extended to a continuum of classes.

math.PR↗

Persistence of AR($1$) sequences with Rademacher innovations and linear mod $1$ transforms

We study the probability that an AR(1) Markov chain $X_{n+1}=aX_n+ξ_{n+1}$, where $a\in(0,1)$ is a constant, stays non-negative for a long time. We find the exact asymptotics of this probability and the weak limit of $X_n$ conditioned to stay non-negative, assuming that the i.i.d.\ innovations $ξ_n$ take only two values $\pm1$ and $a \le \frac23$. This limiting distribution is quasi-stationary. It has no atoms and is singular with respect to the Lebesgue measure when $\frac12< a \le \frac23$, except for the case $a=\frac23$ and $\mathbb{P}(ξ_n=1)=\frac12$, where this distribution is uniform on the interval $[0,3]$. This is similar to the properties of Bernoulli convolutions. For $0 < a \le \frac12$, the situation is much simpler, and the limiting distribution is a $δ$-measure. To prove these results, we uncover a close connection between $X_n$ killed at exiting $[0, \infty)$ and the classical dynamical system defined by the piecewise linear mapping $x \mapsto \frac1a x + \frac12 \pmod 1$. Namely, the trajectory of this system started at $X_n$ deterministically recovers the values of the killed chain in reversed time. We use this fact to construct a suitable Banach space, where the transition operator of the killed chain has the compactness properties that allow us to apply a conventional argument of the Perron--Frobenius type.

math.PR↗

Stationary switching random walks

A switching random walk, commonly known under the misnomer `oscillating random walk', is a real-valued Markov chain whose distribution of increments is determined by the sign of the current position. We explicitly identify an invariant measure of this chain and study its uniqueness, up to a constant factor, within the class of locally finite invariant measures. Next we provide sufficient conditions for the topological recurrence of the switching random walk, and prove its topological irreducibility on a suitably chosen state space. As a consequence of our approach, we establish a new connection between the classical stationary distributions of the renewal theory and stationarity of the Lebesgue measure for random walks. We give further applications concerning reflected random walks and the waiting times in GI/G/1 queues with vacation.

math.PR↗

Stationary entrance chains and applications to random walks

For a Markov chain $Y$ with values in a Polish space, consider the entrance chain, obtained by sampling $Y$ at the moments when it enters a fixed set $A$ from its complement $A^c$. Similarly, consider the exit chain, obtained by sampling $Y$ at the exit times from $A^c$ to $A$. We use the method of inducing from ergodic theory to study invariant measures of these two types of Markov chains in the case when the initial chain $Y$ has a known invariant measure. We give explicit formulas for invariant measures of the entrance and exit chains under certain recurrence-type assumptions on $A$ and $A^c$, which apply even for transient chains. Then we study uniqueness and ergodicity of these invariant measures assuming that $Y$ is topologically recurrent, topologically irreducible, and weak Feller. We give applications to random walks in $R^d$, which we regard as ``stationary'' Markov chains started under the Lebesgue measure. We are mostly interested in dimension one, where we study the Markov chain of overshoots above the zero level of a random walk that oscillates between $-\infty$ and $+\infty$. We show that this chain is ergodic, and use this result to prove a central limit theorem for the number of level crossings of a random walk with zero mean and finite variance of increments.

math.PR↗

The isoperimetric problem for convex hulls and the large deviations rate functionals of random walks

We study the asymptotic behaviour of the most likely trajectories of a planar random walk that result in large deviations of the area of their convex hull. If the Laplace transform of the increments is finite on $R^2$, such a scaled limit trajectory $h$ solves the inhomogeneous anisotropic isoperimetric problem for the convex hull, where the usual length of $h$ is replaced by the large deviations rate functional $\int_0^1 I(h'(t)) dt$ and $I$ is the rate function of the increments. Assuming that the distribution of increments is not supported on a half-plane, we show that the optimal trajectories are convex and satisfy the Euler-Lagrange equation, which we solve explicitly for every $I$. The shape of these trajectories resembles the optimizers in the isoperimetric inequality for the Minkowski plane, found by Busemann (1947).

math.PR↗

When is the rate function of a random vector strictly convex?

We give a necessary and sufficient condition for strict convexity of the rate function of a random vector in $R^d$. This condition is always satisfied when the random vector has finite Laplace transform. We also completely describe the effective domain of the rate function under a weaker condition.

math.PR↗

Large deviations of convex hulls of planar random walks and Brownian motions

We prove large deviations principles (LDPs) for the perimeter and the area of the convex hull of a planar random walk with finite Laplace transform of its increments. We give explicit upper and lower bounds for the rate function of the perimeter in terms of the rate function of the increments. These bounds coincide and thus give the rate function for a wide class of distributions which includes the Gaussians and the rotationally invariant ones. For random walks with such increments, large deviations of the perimeter are attained by the trajectories that asymptotically align into line segments. However, line segments may not be optimal in general. Furthermore, we find explicitly the rate function of the area of the convex hull for random walks with rotationally invariant distribution of increments. For such walks, which necessarily have zero mean, large deviations of the area are attained by the trajectories that asymptotically align into half-circles. For random walks with non-zero mean increments, we find the rate function of the area for Gaussian walks with drift. Here the optimal limit shapes are elliptic arcs if the covariance matrix of increments is non-degenerate and parabolic arcs if otherwise. The above results on convex hulls of Gaussian random walks remain valid for convex hulls of planar Brownian motions of all possible parameters. Moreover, we extend the LDPs for the perimeter and the area of convex hulls to general Levy processes with finite Laplace transform.

math.PR↗

Contraction principle for trajectories of random walks and Cramer's theorem for kernel-weighted sums

In 2013 A.A. Borovkov and A.A. Mogulskii proved a weaker-than-standard "metric" large deviations principle (LDP) for trajectories of random walks in $R^d$ whose increments have the Laplace transform finite in a neighbourhood of zero. We prove that general metric LDPs are preserved under uniformly continuous mappings. This allows us to transform the result of Borovkov and Mogulskii into standard LDPs. We also give an explicit integral representation of the rate function they found. As an application, we extend the classical Cram'er theorem by proving an LPD for kernel-weighted sums of i.i.d. random vectors in $R^d$.

math.PR↗

On the completion of Skorokhod space

We consider the classical Skorokhod space $D[0,1]$ and the space of continuous functions $C[0,1]$ equipped with the standard Skorokhod distance $ρ$. It is well known that neither $(D[0,1],ρ)$ nor $(C[0,1],ρ)$ is complete. We provide an explicit description of the corresponding completions. The elements of these completions can be regarded as usual functions on $[0,1]$ except for a countable number of instants where their values vary "instantly".

math.PR↗

How long is the convex minorant of a one-dimensional random walk?

We prove distributional limit theorems for the length of the largest convex minorant of a one-dimensional random walk with independent identically distributed increments. Depending on the increment law, there are several regimes with different limit distributions for this length. Among other tools, a representation of the convex minorant of a random walk in terms of uniform random permutations is utilized.

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Artificial Increasing Returns to Scale and the Problem of Sampling from Lognormals

We show how increasing returns to scale in urban scaling can artificially emerge, systematically and predictably, without any sorting or positive externalities. We employ a model where individual productivities are independent and identically distributed lognormal random variables across all cities. We use extreme value theory to demonstrate analytically the paradoxical emergence of increasing returns to scale when the variance of log-productivity is larger than twice the log-size of the population size of the smallest city in a cross-sectional regression. Our contributions are to derive an analytical prediction for the artificial scaling exponent arising from this mechanism and to develop a simple statistical test to try to tell whether a given estimate is real or an artifact. Our analytical results are validated analyzing simulations and real microdata of wages across municipalities in Colombia. We show how an artificial scaling exponent emerges in the Colombian data when the sizes of random samples of workers per municipality are $1\%$ or less of their total size.

econ.GN↗

Stationary entrance Markov chains, inducing, and level-crossings of random walks

For a Markov chain $Y$ with values in a Polish space, consider the entrance Markov chain obtained by sampling $Y$ at the moments when it enters a fixed set $A$ from its complement $A^c$. Similarly, consider the exit Markov chain, obtained by sampling $Y$ at the exit times from $A^c$ to $A$. This paper provides a framework for analysing invariant measures of these two types of Markov chains in the case when the initial chain $Y$ has a known $σ$-finite invariant measure. Under certain recurrence-type assumptions ($Y$ can be transient), we give explicit formulas for invariant measures of these chains. Then we study their uniqueness and ergodicity assuming that $Y$ is topologically recurrent, irreducible, and weak Feller. Our approach is based on the technique of inducing from infinite ergodic theory. This also yields, in a natural way, the versions of the results above (provided in the paper) for the classical induced Markov chains. We give applications to random walks in $R^d$, which we regard as "stationary" Markov chains started under the Lebesgue measure. We are mostly interested in dimension one, where we study the Markov chain of overshoots above the zero level of a random walk that oscillates between $-\infty$ and $+\infty$. We show that this chain is ergodic, and use this result to prove a central limit theorem for the number of level crossings for random walks with zero mean and finite variance of increments.

math.PR↗

Stability of overshoots of zero mean random walks

We prove that for a random walk on the real line whose increments have zero mean and are either integer-valued or spread out (i.e. the distributions of the steps of the walk are eventually non-singular), the Markov chain of overshoots above a fixed level converges in total variation to its stationary distribution. We find the explicit form of this distribution heuristically and then prove its invariance using a time-reversal argument. If, in addition, the increments of the walk are in the domain of attraction of a non-one-sided $α$-stable law with index $α\in(1,2)$ (resp. have finite variance), we establish geometric (resp. uniform) ergodicity for the Markov chain of overshoots. All the convergence results above are also valid for the Markov chain obtained by sampling the walk at the entrance times into an interval.

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Yet another note on the arithmetic-geometric mean inequality

It was shown by E. Gluskin and V.D. Milman in [GAFA Lecture Notes in Math. 1807, 2003] that the classical arithmetic-geometric mean inequality can be reversed (up to a multiplicative constant) with high probability, when applied to coordinates of a point chosen with respect to the surface unit measure on a high-dimensional Euclidean sphere. We present here two asymptotic refinements of this phenomenon in the more general setting of the surface probability measure on a high-dimensional $\ell_p$-sphere, and also show that sampling the point according to either the cone probability measure on $\ell_p$ or the uniform distribution on the ball enclosed by $\ell_p$ yields the same results. First, we prove a central limit theorem, which allows us to identify the precise constants in the reverse inequality. Second, we prove the large deviations counterpart to the central limit theorem, thereby describing the asymptotic behavior beyond the Gaussian scale, and identify the rate function.

math.CA↗

A multidimensional analogue of the arcsine law for the number of positive terms in a random walk

Consider a random walk $S_i= ξ_1+\ldots+ξ_i$, $i\in\mathbb N$, whose increments $ξ_1,ξ_2,\ldots$ are independent identically distributed random vectors in $\mathbb R^d$ such that $ξ_1$ has the same law as $-ξ_1$ and $\mathbb P[ξ_1\in H] = 0$ for every affine hyperplane $H\subset \mathbb R^d$. Our main result is the distribution-free formula $$ \mathbb E \left[\sum_{1\leq i_1 < \ldots < i_k\leq n} 1_{\{0\notin \text{conv}(S_{i_1},\ldots, S_{i_k})\}}\right] = 2 \binom n k \frac {B(k, d-1) + B(k, d-3) +\ldots} {2^k k!}, $$ where the $B(k,j)$'s are defined by their generating function $$ (t+1) (t+3) \ldots (t+2k-1) = \sum_{j=0}^{k} B(k,j) t^j. $$ The expected number of $k$-tuples above admits the following geometric interpretation: it is the expected number of $k$-dimensional faces of a randomly and uniformly sampled open Weyl chamber of type $B_n$ that are not intersected by a generic linear subspace $L\subset \mathbb R^n$ of codimension $d$. The case $d=1$ turns out to be equivalent to the classical discrete arcsine law for the number of positive terms in a one-dimensional random walk with continuous symmetric distribution of increments. We also prove similar results for random bridges with no central symmetry assumption required.

math.PR↗

Convex hulls of random walks: Expected number of faces and face probabilities

Consider a sequence of partial sums $S_i= ξ_1+\dots+ξ_i$, $1\leq i\leq n$, starting at $S_0=0$, whose increments $ξ_1,\dots,ξ_n$ are random vectors in $\mathbb R^d$, $d\leq n$. We are interested in the properties of the convex hull $C_n:=\mathrm{Conv}(S_0,S_1,\dots,S_n)$. Assuming that the tuple $(ξ_1,\dots,ξ_n)$ is exchangeable and a certain general position condition holds, we prove that the expected number of $k$-dimensional faces of $C_n$ is given by the formula $$ \mathbb E [f_k(C_n)] = \frac{2\cdot k!}{n!} \sum_{l=0}^{\infty}\genfrac{[}{]}{0pt}{}{n+1}{d-2l} \genfrac{\{}{\}}{0pt}{}{d-2l}{k+1}, $$ for all $0\leq k \leq d-1$, where $\genfrac{[}{]}{0pt}{}{n}{m}$ and $\genfrac{\{}{\}}{0pt}{}{n}{m}$ are Stirling numbers of the first and second kind, respectively. Further, we compute explicitly the probability that for given indices $0\leq i_1<\dots <i_{k+1}\leq n$, the points $S_{i_1},\dots,S_{i_{k+1}}$ form a $k$-dimensional face of $\mathrm{Conv}(S_0,S_1,\dots,S_n)$. This is done in two different settings: for random walks with symmetrically exchangeable increments and for random bridges with exchangeable increments. These results generalize the classical one-dimensional discrete arcsine law for the position of the maximum due to E. Sparre Andersen. All our formulae are distribution-free, that is do not depend on the distribution of the increments $ξ_k$'s. The main ingredient in the proof is the computation of the probability that the origin is absorbed by a joint convex hull of several random walks and bridges whose increments are invariant with respect to the action of direct product of finitely many reflection groups of types $A_{n-1}$ and $B_n$. This probability, in turn, is related to the number of Weyl chambers of a product-type reflection group that are intersected by a linear subspace in general position.

math.PR↗

Convex hulls of multidimensional random walks

Let $S_k$ be a random walk in $R^d$ such that its distribution of increments does not assign mass to hyperplanes. We study the probability $p_n$ that the convex hull $conv (S_1, \ldots , S_n)$ of the first $n$ steps of the walk does not include the origin. By providing an explicit formula, we show that for planar symmetrically distributed random walks, $p_n$ does not depend on the distribution of increments. This extends the well known result by Sparre Andersen (1949) that a one-dimensional random walk satisfying the above continuity and symmetry assumptions stays positive with a distribution-free probability. We also find the asymptotics of $p_n$ as $n \to \infty$ for any planar random walk with zero mean square-integrable increments. We further developed our approach from the planar case to study a wide class of geometric characteristics of convex hulls of random walks in any dimension $d \ge 2$. In particular, we give formulas for the expected value of the number of faces, the volume, the surface area, and other intrinsic volumes, including the following multidimensional generalization of the Spitzer--Widom formula (1961) on the perimeter of planar walks: $$ E V_1 (conv(0, S_1, \dots, S_n)) = \sum_{k=1}^n \frac{E \|S_k\|}{k}, $$ where $V_1$ denotes the first intrinsic volume, which is proportional to the mean width. These results have applications to geometry, and in particular, imply the formula by Gao and Vitale (2001) for the intrinsic volumes of special path-simplexes, called canonical orthoschemes, which are finite-dimensional approximations of the closed convex hull of a Wiener spiral. Moreover, there is a direct connection between spherical intrinsic volumes of these simplexes and the probabilities $p_n$. We also prove similar results for convex hulls of random walk bridges, and more generally, for partial sums of exchangeable random vectors.

math.PR↗

Convex hulls of random walks, hyperplane arrangements, and Weyl chambers

We give an explicit formula for the probability that the convex hull of an $n$-step random walk in $R^d$ does not contain the origin, under the assumption that the distribution of increments of the walk is centrally symmetric and puts no mass on affine hyperplanes. This extends the formula by Sparre Andersen (1949) for the probability that such random walk in dimension one stays positive. Our result is distribution-free, that is, the probability does not depend on the distribution of increments. This probabilistic problem is shown to be equivalent to either of the two geometric ones: 1) Find the number of Weyl chambers of type $B_n$ intersected by a generic linear subspace of $R^n$ of codimension $d$; 2) Find the conic intrinsic volumes of a Weyl chamber of type $B_n$. We solve the first geometric problem using the theory of hyperplane arrangements. A by-product of our method is a new simple proof of the general formula by Klivans and Swartz (2011) relating the coefficients of the characteristic polynomial of a linear hyperplane arrangement to the conic intrinsic volumes of the chambers constituting its complement. We obtain analogous distribution-free results for Weyl chambers of type $A_{n-1}$ (yielding the probability of absorption of the origin by the convex hull of a generic random walk bridge), type $D_n$, and direct products of Weyl chambers (yielding the absorption probability for the joint convex hull of several random walks or bridges). The simplest case of products of the form $B_1\times \dots \times B_1$ recovers the Wendel formula (1962) for the probability that the convex hull of an i.i.d. multidimensional sample chosen from a centrally symmetric distribution does not contain the origin. We also give an asymptotic analysis of the obtained absorption probabilities as $n \to \infty$, in both cases of fixed and increasing dimension $d$.

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