Martin Kolb

Quasilimiting behavior for one-dimensional diffusions with killing

This paper extends and clarifies results of Steinsaltz and Evans [Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 359 (2007) 1285–1234], which found conditions for convergence of a killed one-dimensional diffusion conditioned on survival, to a quasistationary distribution whose density is given by the principal eigenfunction of the generator. Under the assumption that the limit of the killing at infinity differs from the principal eigenvalue we prove that convergence to quasistationarity occurs if and only if the principal eigenfunction is integrable. When the killing at ∞ is larger than the principal eigenvalue, then the eigenfunction is always integrable. When the killing at ∞ is smaller, the eigenfunction is integrable only when the unkilled process is recurrent; otherwise, the process conditioned on survival converges to 0 density on any bounded interval.

Markov models of aging: theory and practice

We review and structure some of the mathematical and statistical models that have been developed over the past half century to grapple with theoretical and experimental questions about the stochastic development of aging over the life course. We suggest that the mathematical models are in large part addressing the problem of partitioning the randomness in aging: How does aging vary between individuals, and within an individual over the lifecourse? How much of the variation is inherently related to some qualities of the individual, and how much is entirely random? How much of the randomness is cumulative, and how much is merely short-term flutter? We propose that recent lines of statistical inquiry in survival analysis could usefully grapple with these questions, all the more so if they were more explicitly linked to the relevant mathematical and biological models of aging. To this end, we describe points of contact among the various lines of mathematical and statistical research. We suggest some directions for future work, including the exploration of information-theoretic measures for evaluating components of stochastic models as the basis for analyzing experiments and anchoring theoretical discussions of aging.

The Brownian traveller on manifolds

We study the influence of the intrinsic curvature on the large time behaviour of the heat equation in a tubular neighbourhood of an unbounded geodesic in a two-dimensional Riemannian manifold. Since we consider killing boundary conditions, there is always an exponential-type decay for the heat semigroup. We show that this exponential-type decay is slower for positively curved manifolds comparing to the flat case. As the main result, we establish a sharp extra polynomial-type decay for the heat semigroup on negatively curved manifolds comparing to the flat case. The proof employs the existence of Hardy-type inequalities for the Dirichlet Laplacian in the tubular neighbourhoods on negatively curved manifolds and the method of self-similar variables and weighted Sobolev spaces for the heat equation.

(Non-)Ergodicity of a Degenerate Diffusion Modeling the Fiber Lay Down Process

We analyze the large time behavior of a stochastic model for the lay down of fibers on a moving conveyor belt in the production process of nonwovens. It is shown that under weak conditions this degenerate diffusion process has a unique invariant distribution and is even geometrically ergodic. This generalizes results from previous works [M. Grothaus and A. Klar, SIAM J. Math. Anal., 40 (2008), pp. 968--983; J. Dolbeault et al., arXiv:1201.2156] concerning the case of a stationary conveyor belt, in which the situation of a moving conveyor belt has been left open.

ON THE LONG TIME BEHAVIOR OF FREE STOCHASTIC SCHRÖDINGER EVOLUTIONS

We discuss the time evolution of the wave function which is the solution of a stochastic Schrodinger equation describing the dynamics of a free quantum particle subject to spontaneous localizations in space. We prove global existence and uniqueness of solutions. We observe that there exist three time regimes: the collapse regime, the classical regime and the diffusive regime. Concerning the latter, we assert that the general solution converges almost surely to a diffusing Gaussian wave function having a finite spread both in position as well as in momentum. This paper corrects and completes earlier works on this issue.

On a stochastic Trotter formula with application to spontaneous localization models

We consider the relation between so called continuous localization models—i.e. non-linear stochastic Schrödinger evolutions—and the discrete GRW-model of wave function collapse. The former can be understood as scaling limit of the GRW process. The proof relies on a stochastic Trotter formula, which is of interest in its own right. Our Trotter formula also allows to complement results on existence theory of stochastic Schrödinger evolutions by Holevo and Mora/Rebolledo.

Local asymptotics for the area of random walk excursions

We prove a local limit theorem for the area of the positive exursion of random walks with zero mean and finite variance. Our main result complements previous work of Caravenna and Chaumont, Sohier, as well as Kim and Pittel.

ON THE STRONG UNIQUENESS OF SOME FINITE DIMENSIONAL DIRICHLET OPERATORS

We prove essential self-adjointness of a class of Dirichlet operators in ℝn using the hyperbolic equation approach. This method allows one to prove essential self-adjointness under minimal conditions on the logarithmic derivative of the density and a condition of Muckenhoupt type on the density itself.

Spectral analysis of the diffusion operator with random jumps from the boundary

Using an operator-theoretic framework in a Hilbert-space setting, we perform a detailed spectral analysis of the one-dimensional Laplacian in a bounded interval, subject to specific non-self-adjoint connected boundary conditions modelling a random jump from the boundary to a point inside the interval. In accordance with previous works, we find that all the eigenvalues are real. As the new results, we derive and analyse the adjoint operator, determine the geometric and algebraic multiplicities of the eigenvalues, write down formulae for the eigenfunctions together with the generalised eigenfunctions and study their basis properties. It turns out that the latter heavily depend on whether the distance of the interior point to the centre of the interval divided by the length of the interval is rational or irrational. Finally, we find a closed formula for the metric operator that provides a similarity transform of the problem to a self-adjoint operator.

Transience and recurrence of a Brownian path with limited local time

In this note we investigate the behaviour of Brownian motion conditioned on a growth constraint of its local time which has been previously investigated by Berestycki and Benjamini. For a class of non-decreasing positive functions