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Limit behaviour for stochastic monotonicity and applications

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2016

Harry Cohn*
Affiliation:
The University of Melbourne
*
Postal address: Department of Statistics, University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC 3052, Australia.

Abstract

A transition probability kernel P(·,·) is said to be stochastically monotone if P(x, (–∞, y]) is non-increasing in x for every fixed y. A Markov chain is said to be stochastically monotone (SMMC) if its transition probability kernels are stochastically monotone. A new method for tackling the asymptotics of SMMC is given in terms of some limit variables {Wq}. In the temporally homogeneous case a cyclic pattern for {Wq} will describe the limit behaviour of suitably normed and centred processes. As a consequence, geometrically growing constants turn out to pertain to almost sure convergence. Some convergence criteria are given and applications to branching processes and diffusions are outlined.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Applied Probability Trust 1988 

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Footnotes

Research partly carried out while visiting the Center for Stochastic Processes, University of North Carolina and supported by AFOSR # F49620 82 C 0009.

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