Related papers: Leading All The Way

We are studying the motion of a random walker in two and three dimensional continuum with uniformly distributed jump-length. This is different from conventional Lavy flight. In 2D and 3D continuum, a random walker can move in any direction,…

We prove that the law of a random walk $X_n$ is determined by the one-dimensional distributions of $\max(X_n, 0)$ for $n = 1, 2, \ldots$, as conjectured recently by Lo\"ic Chaumont and Ron Doney. Equivalently, the law of $X_n$ is determined…

We give sharp, uniform estimates for the probability that a random walk of n steps on the reals avoids a half-line [y,infinity) given that it ends at the point x. The estimates hold for general continuous or lattice distributions provided…

This paper proposes a dynamic research contest, namely chasing contest, in which two asymmetric contestants exert costly effort to accomplish two breakthroughs. The contestants are asymmetric in that one of them is present-biased and has…

Suppose that $k$ runners having different constant speeds run laps on a circular track of unit length. The Lonely Runner Conjecture states that, sooner or later, any given runner will be at distance at least $1/k$ from all the other…

Consider a game where a refereed a referee chooses (x,y) according to a publicly known distribution P_XY, sends x to Alice, and y to Bob. Without communicating with each other, Alice responds with a value "a" and Bob responds with a value…

Let $P$ be the transition matrix of a finite, irreducible and reversible Markov chain. We say the continuous time Markov chain $X$ has transition matrix $P$ and speed $\lambda$ if it jumps at rate $\lambda$ according to the matrix $P$. Fix…

We study a contest in which $N$ players sequentially draw from a distribution as many times as they want at a fixed cost per draw, with no recall, and the highest accepted value wins a prize. In the unique symmetric equilibrium, the…

Consider a walk in the plane made of $n$ unit steps, with directions chosen independently and uniformly at random at each step. Rayleigh's theorem asserts that the probability for such a walk to end at a distance less than 1 from its…

We have studied a random walk model based on majority rule. At a given instant, the moving direction of a cargo is determined by motor coordination mediated by a tug-of-war mechanism between two kinds of competing motor proteins. We have…

In this paper we consider a telegraph equation with time-dependent coefficients, governing the persistent random walk of a particle moving on the line with a time-varying velocity $c(t)$ and changing direction at instants distributed…

This note considers a variation of the full-information secretary problem where the random variables to be observed are independent and identically distributed. Consider $X_1,\dots,X_n$ to be an independent sequence of random variables, let…

In "Recognizing the Maximum of a Sequence", Gilbert and Mosteller analyze a full information game where n measurements from an uniform distribution are drawn and a player (knowing n) must decide at each draw whether or not to choose that…

We consider a limit theorem for the distribution of a r.v. $Y_n:=argmax {\{X_i, i= 1,..., n\}},$ where $X_i'$s are independent continuous non-negative random variables. The r.v.'s $\{X_i, i=1,..., n\}$, may be interpreted as the gains of…

This paper studies the equilibrium behavior in contests with stochastic progress. Participants have access to a safe action that makes progress deterministically, but they can also take risky moves that stochastically influence their…

The distribution of the first positive position reached by a random walker starting from the origin is fundamental for understanding the statistics of extremes and records in one-dimensional random walks. We present a comprehensive study of…

We study the behaviour of a sequence of biased random walks X(i), i>=0 on a sequence of random graphs, where the initial graph is Zd and otherwise the graph for the i-th walk is the trace of the (i - 1)-st walk. The sequence of bias vectors…

Let $G$ be a real Lie group, $\Lambda\leq G$ a lattice, and $\Omega=G/\Lambda$. We study the equidistribution properties of the left random walk on $\Omega$ induced by a probability measure $\mu$ on $G$. It is assumed that $\mu$ has a…

We introduce a simple one-parameter game derived from a model describing the properties of a directed polymer in a random medium. At his turn, each of the two players picks a move among two alternatives in order to maximize his final score,…

We study an infinite system of particles initially occupying a half-line $y\leq 0$ and undergoing random walks on the entire line. The right-most particle is called a leader. Surprisingly, every particle except the original leader may never…