An Introduction To Continuous Time Stochastic Processes

Expanding on the first edition of An Introduction to Continuous-Time Stochastic Processes, this concisely written book is a rigorous and self-contained introduction to the theory of continuous-time stochastic processes. A balance of theory and applications, the work features concrete examples of modeling real-world problems from biology, medicine, industrial applications, finance, and insurance using stochastic methods. No previous knowledge of stochastic processes is required.

This concisely written book is a rigorous and self-contained introduction to the theory of continuous-time stochastic processes. Balancing theory and applications, the authors use stochastic methods and concrete examples to model real-world problems from engineering, biomathematics, biotechnology, and finance. Suitable as a textbook for graduate or advanced undergraduate courses, the work may also be used for self-study or as a reference. The book will be of interest to students, pure and applied mathematicians, and researchers or practitioners in mathematical finance, biomathematics, physics, and engineering.

Markov processes are among the most important stochastic processes for both theory and applications. This book develops the general theory of these processes, and applies this theory to various special examples.

Based on a well-established and popular course taught by the authors over many years, Stochastic Processes: An Introduction, Third Edition, discusses the modelling and analysis of random experiments, where processes evolve over time. The text begins with a review of relevant fundamental probability. It then covers gambling problems, random walks, and Markov chains. The authors go on to discuss random processes continuous in time, including Poisson, birth and death processes, and general population models, and present an extended discussion on the analysis of associated stationary processes in queues. The book also explores reliability and other random processes, such as branching, martingales, and simple epidemics. A new chapter describing Brownian motion, where the outcomes are continuously observed over continuous time, is included. Further applications, worked examples and problems, and biographical details have been added to this edition. Much of the text has been reworked. The appendix contains key results in probability for reference. This concise, updated book makes the material accessible, highlighting simple applications and examples. A solutions manual with fully worked answers of all end-of-chapter problems, and Mathematica® and R programs illustrating many processes discussed in the book, can be downloaded from crcpress.com.

Brownian motion is one of the most important stochastic processes in continuous time and with continuous state space. Within the realm of stochastic processes, Brownian motion is at the intersection of Gaussian processes, martingales, Markov processes, diffusions and random fractals, and it has influenced the study of these topics. Its central position within mathematics is matched by numerous applications in science, engineering and mathematical finance. Often textbooks on probability theory cover, if at all, Brownian motion only briefly. On the other hand, there is a considerable gap to more specialized texts on Brownian motion which is not so easy to overcome for the novice. The authors’ aim was to write a book which can be used as an introduction to Brownian motion and stochastic calculus, and as a first course in continuous-time and continuous-state Markov processes. They also wanted to have a text which would be both a readily accessible mathematical back-up for contemporary applications (such as mathematical finance) and a foundation to get easy access to advanced monographs. This textbook, tailored to the needs of graduate and advanced undergraduate students, covers Brownian motion, starting from its elementary properties, certain distributional aspects, path properties, and leading to stochastic calculus based on Brownian motion. It also includes numerical recipes for the simulation of Brownian motion.

This book presents a self-contained introduction to stochastic processes with emphasis on their applications in science, engineering, finance, computer science, and operations research. It provides theoretical foundations for modeling time-dependent random phenomena in these areas and illustrates their application by analyzing numerous practical examples. The treatment assumes few prerequisites, requiring only the standard mathematical maturity acquired by undergraduate applied science students. It includes an introductory chapter that summarizes the basic probability theory needed as background. Numerous exercises reinforce the concepts and techniques discussed and allow readers to assess their grasp of the subject. Solutions to most of the exercises are provided in an appendix. While focused primarily on practical aspects, the presentation includes some important proofs along with more challenging examples and exercises for those more theoretically inclined. Mastering the contents of this book prepares readers to apply stochastic modeling in their own fields and enables them to work more creatively with software designed for dealing with the data analysis aspects of stochastic processes.

The objective of this book is to introduce the elements of stochastic processes in a rather concise manner where we present the two most important parts — Markov chains and stochastic analysis. The readers are led directly to the core of the main topics to be treated in the context. Further details and additional materials are left to a section containing abundant exercises for further reading and studying.In the part on Markov chains, the focus is on the ergodicity. By using the minimal nonnegative solution method, we deal with the recurrence and various types of ergodicity. This is done step by step, from finite state spaces to denumerable state spaces, and from discrete time to continuous time. The methods of proofs adopt modern techniques, such as coupling and duality methods. Some very new results are included, such as the estimate of the spectral gap. The structure and proofs in the first part are rather different from other existing textbooks on Markov chains.In the part on stochastic analysis, we cover the martingale theory and Brownian motions, the stochastic integral and stochastic differential equations with emphasis on one dimension, and the multidimensional stochastic integral and stochastic equation based on semimartingales. We introduce three important topics here: the Feynman-Kac formula, random time transform and Girsanov transform. As an essential application of the probability theory in classical mathematics, we also deal with the famous Brunn-Minkowski inequality in convex geometry.This book also features modern probability theory that is used in different fields, such as MCMC, or even deterministic areas: convex geometry and number theory. It provides a new and direct routine for students going through the classical Markov chains to the modern stochastic analysis.