The Theory Of Stochastic Processes I

From the Reviews: "Gihman and Skorohod have done an excellent job of presenting the theory in its present state of rich imperfection." --D.W. Stroock, Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society, 1980

This book should be of interest to undergraduate and postgraduate students of probability theory.

Stochastic Processes: General Theory starts with the fundamental existence theorem of Kolmogorov, together with several of its extensions to stochastic processes. It treats the function theoretical aspects of processes and includes an extended account of martingales and their generalizations. Various compositions of (quasi- or semi-)martingales and their integrals are given. Here the Bochner boundedness principle plays a unifying role: a unique feature of the book. Applications to higher order stochastic differential equations and their special features are presented in detail. Stochastic processes in a manifold and multiparameter stochastic analysis are also discussed. Each of the seven chapters includes complements, exercises and extensive references: many avenues of research are suggested. The book is a completely revised and enlarged version of the author's Stochastic Processes and Integration (Noordhoff, 1979). The new title reflects the content and generality of the extensive amount of new material. Audience: Suitable as a text/reference for second year graduate classes and seminars. A knowledge of real analysis, including Lebesgue integration, is a prerequisite.

This textbook introduces the theory of stochastic processes, that is, randomness which proceeds in time. Using concrete examples like repeated gambling and jumping frogs, it presents fundamental mathematical results through simple, clear, logical theorems and examples. It covers in detail such essential material as Markov chain recurrence criteria, the Markov chain convergence theorem, and optional stopping theorems for martingales. The final chapter provides a brief introduction to Brownian motion, Markov processes in continuous time and space, Poisson processes, and renewal theory.Interspersed throughout are applications to such topics as gambler's ruin probabilities, random walks on graphs, sequence waiting times, branching processes, stock option pricing, and Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithms.The focus is always on making the theory as well-motivated and accessible as possible, to allow students and readers to learn this fascinating subject as easily and painlessly as possible.

The definitive textbook on stochastic processes, written by one of the world's leading information theorists, covering both theory and applications.

From the Reviews: "Gihman and Skorohod have done an excellent job of presenting the theory in its present state of rich imperfection." D.W. Stroock in Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society, 1980 "To call this work encyclopedic would not give an accurate picture of its content and style. Some parts read like a textbook, but others are more technical and contain relatively new results. ... The exposition is robust and explicit, as one has come to expect of the Russian tradition of mathematical writing. The set when completed will be an invaluable source of information and reference in this ever-expanding field" K.L. Chung in American Scientist, 1977 "..., the subject has grown enormously since 1953, and there will never be a true successor to Doob's book, but Gihman and Skorohod's three volumes will, I think, occupy a rather similar position as an invaluable tool of reference for all probability theorists. ... The dominant impression is of the authors' mastery of their material, and of their confident insight into its underlying structure. ..." J.F.C. Kingman in Bulletin of the London Mathematical Society, 1977

Unlike traditional books presenting stochastic processes in an academic way, this book includes concrete applications that students will find interesting such as gambling, finance, physics, signal processing, statistics, fractals, and biology. Written with an important illustrated guide in the beginning, it contains many illustrations, photos and pictures, along with several website links. Computational tools such as simulation and Monte Carlo methods are included as well as complete toolboxes for both traditional and new computational techniques.