Stopped Random Walks

Classical probability theory provides information about random walks after a fixed number of steps. For applications it is more natural to consider random walks evaluated after random number of steps. This book offers a unified treatment of the subject and shows how this theory can be used to prove limit theorems for renewal counting processes, first passage time processes, and certain two-dimensional random walks, and how these results are useful in various applications.

Classical probability theory provides information about random walks after a fixed number of steps. For applications, however, it is more natural to consider random walks evaluated after a random number of steps. Stopped Random Walks: Limit Theorems and Applications shows how this theory can be used to prove limit theorems for renewal counting processes, first passage time processes, and certain two-dimensional random walks, as well as how these results may be used in a variety of applications.

The present second edition offers updated content and an outlook on further results, extensions and generalizations. A new chapter introduces nonlinear renewal processes and the theory of perturbed random walks, which are modeled as random walks plus "noise".

This self-contained research monograph is motivated by numerous examples and problems. With its concise blend of material and over 300 bibliographic references, the book provides a unified and fairly complete treatment of the area. The book may be used in the classroom as part of a course on "probability theory", "random walks" or "random walks and renewal processes", as well as for self-study.

From the reviews:

"The book provides a nice synthesis of a lot of useful material."

--American Mathematical Society

"...[a] clearly written book, useful for researcher and student."

--Zentralblatt MATH