Stochastic Processes Notes
Stochastic Processes Notes
Ky-Anh Tran
April 11, 2017
Abstract
Some notes covering stochastic processes... . . .
A markov process essentially has no memory of its past trajectories.. (whether we know the past
trajectory does not affect the probability for a given future path). Another way to say this is the Markov
Process an evolution that is local in time (only dependent on current time values). This is a crucial
property that makes it very physical, since usual physics equations evolve quantities with forces that act
locally in time too.
Z
P (y3 , t3 |y1 , t1 ) = dt2 P (y3 , t3 |y2 , t2 )P (y2 , t2 |y1 , t1 ) (2)
The Chapman Kolmogorov relation is just a statement of composition for the evolution of probability
densities.
We can see already this composition rule sets up a path integral formulation quite nicely (propagators
also satisfy composition rules)
Z
P (y, t)
= dy 0 W (y, y 0 , t)P (y 0 , t) W (y 0 , y, t)P (y, t) (3)
t
where W (y 0 , y, t) is the transition rate between y to y 0 at time t.
This equation is a bit murky since its an integro differential equation... Maybe there are simplifications
we can make.
1
1.3 Kramer Moyal Expansion
What we want is an order by order expansion. We can rewrite the transition rate as
W (y, y y 0 , t) which suggest there is an expansion (lets say W (y, r, t) is large at a very particular r = 0
and 0 elsewhere).
Therefore:
Z Z
P
= drW (y r, r, t)P (y r, t) P (y, t) drW (y, r, t) (4)
t
Because W (y, r, t) is small for large r, we can expand in r (note P (y r, t) is assumed to be smoothly
changing to P (y r, t) P (y, t) for small r)
Z Z Z
P X 1 n n
= drW (y, r, t)P (y r, t) + dr(r) y W (y, r, t)P P (y, t) drW (y, r, t) (5)
t n=1
n!
(1)n n
Z
P X
The Kramers Moyal Expansion : = y drrn W (y, r, t)P (y, t) (6)
t n=1
n!
P
= y [a1 P (y, t)] + n y [a2 P (y, t)] (7)
t
Z
an drrn W (y, r, t) (8)
2 Markov Chains
For a discrete stochastic Markov process, we can encode the transition probability (equivalent of W (y, r, t)
above) by a matrix Mmn , the markov matrix for the transition rate probability from state m to state n.