English

On the centre of mass of a random walk

Probability 2019-10-04 v2

Abstract

For a random walk SnS_n on Rd\mathbb{R}^d we study the asymptotic behaviour of the associated centre of mass process Gn=n1i=1nSiG_n = n^{-1} \sum_{i=1}^n S_i. For lattice distributions we give conditions for a local limit theorem to hold. We prove that if the increments of the walk have zero mean and finite second moment, GnG_n is recurrent if d=1d=1 and transient if d2d \geq 2. In the transient case we show that GnG_n has diffusive rate of escape. These results extend work of Grill, who considered simple symmetric random walk. We also give a class of random walks with symmetric heavy-tailed increments for which GnG_n is transient in d=1d=1.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1708.04470,
  title  = {On the centre of mass of a random walk},
  author = {Chak Hei Lo and Andrew R. Wade},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1708.04470},
  year   = {2019}
}

Comments

26 pages, 1 colour figure; v2: minor revision