English

Numerical instability in B&D models

Probability 2021-07-09 v1

Abstract

When computing the expected value of time till extinction of a Birth and Death process, the usual textbook approach results in an extreme case of numerical ill-conditioning, which prevents us from getting accurate answers beyond the first few low-lying states; in this brief note we present a potential solution, together with a novel derivation of related formulas.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2107.03454,
  title  = {Numerical instability in B&D models},
  author = {Jan Vrbik},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2107.03454},
  year   = {2021}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-24T03:58:46.240Z