Identifying Coefficients in the Spectral Representation for First Passage Times.

1986 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Brown ◽  
Yi-Shi Shao
1999 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 307-315 ◽  
Author(s):  
SVEN ERICK ALM ◽  
JOHN C. WIERMAN

A simple geometric argument establishes an inequality between the sums of two pairs of first-passage times. This result is used to prove monotonicity, convexity and concavity results for first-passage times with cylinder and half-space restrictions.


1989 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-88 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Abate ◽  
Ward Whitt

The distribution of upward first passage times in skip-free Markov chains can be expressed solely in terms of the eigenvalues in the spectral representation, without performing a separate calculation to determine the eigenvectors. We provide insight into this result and skip-free Markov chains more generally by showing that part of the spectral theory developed for birth-and-death processes extends to skip-free chains. We show that the eigenvalues and eigenvectors of skip-free chains can be characterized in terms of recursively defined polynomials. Moreover, the Laplace transform of the upward first passage time from 0 to n is the reciprocal of the nth polynomial. This simple relationship holds because the Laplace transforms of the first passage times satisfy the same recursion as the polynomials except for a normalization.


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