This book provides an undergraduate introduction to discrete and continuous-time Markov chains and their applications. It includes more than 70 exercises, along with complete solutions, that help illustrate and present all concepts.

This book provides an undergraduate-level introduction to discrete and continuous-time Markov chains and their applications, with a particular focus on the first step analysis technique and its applications to average hitting times and ruin probabilities. It also discusses classical topics such as recurrence and transience, stationary and limiting distributions, as well as branching processes. It first examines in detail two important examples (gambling processes and random walks) before presenting the general theory itself in the subsequent chapters. It also provides an introduction to discrete-time martingales and their relation to ruin probabilities and mean exit times, together with a chapter on spatial Poisson processes. The concepts presented are illustrated by examples, 138 exercises and 9 problems with their solutions.

Easily accessible to both mathematics and non-mathematics majors who are taking an introductory course on Stochastic Processes Filled with numerous exercises to test students' understanding of key concepts A gentle introduction to help students ease into later chapters, also suitable for self-study Accompanied with computer simulation codes in R and Python Request lecturer material: sn.pub/lecturer-material

Autorentext

Nicolas Privault received a PhD degree from the University of Paris VI, France. He was with the University of Evry, France, the University of La Rochelle, France, and the University of Poitiers, France. He is currently a Professor with the School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. His research interests are in the areas of stochastic analysis and its applications.

Inhalt
Probability Background.- Gambling Problems.- Random Walks.- Discrete-Time Markov Chains.- First Step Analysis.- Classification of States.- Long-Run Behavior of Markov Chains.- Branching Processes.- Continuous-Time Markov Chains.- Discrete-Time Martingales.- Spatial Poisson Processes.- Reliability Theory.