Partial differential equations are powerful tools for used to characterizing various physical systems. In practice, measurement errors are often present and probability models are employed to account for such uncertainties. In this paper we present a Monte Carlo scheme that yields unbiased estimators for expectations of random elliptic partial differential equations. This algorithm combines a multilevel Monte Carlo method (Giles (2008)) and a randomization scheme proposed by Rhee and Glynn (2012), (2013). Furthermore, to obtain an estimator with both finite variance and finite expected computational cost, we employ higher-order approximations.

In this paper we continue the examination of inventory control in which the inventory is modeled by a diffusion process and a long-term average cost criterion is used to make decisions. The class of such models under consideration has general drift and diffusion coefficients, and boundary points that are consistent with the notion that demand should tend to reduce the inventory level. The conditions on the cost functions are greatly relaxed from those in Helmes et al. (2017). Characterization of the cost of a general (s, S) policy as a function of two variables naturally leads to a nonlinear optimization problem over the ordering levels s and S. Existence of an optimizing pair (s*, S*) is established for these models under very weak conditions; nonexistence of an optimizing pair is also discussed. Using average expected occupation and ordering measures and weak convergence arguments, weak conditions are given for the optimality of the (s*, S*) ordering policy in the general class of admissible policies. The analysis involves an auxiliary function that is globally C2 and which, together with the infimal cost, solves a particular system of linear equations and inequalities related to but different from the long-term average Hamilton‒Jacobi‒Bellman equation. This approach provides an analytical solution to the problem rather than a solution involving intricate analysis of the stochastic processes. The range of applicability of these results is illustrated on a drifted Brownian motion inventory model, both unconstrained and reflected, and on a geometric Brownian motion inventory model under two different cost structures.

We study a variant of Gilbert's disc model, in which discs are positioned at the points of a Poisson process in ℝ2 with radii determined by an underlying stationary and ergodic random field φ:ℝ2→[0,∞), independent of the Poisson process. This setting, in which the random field is independent of the point process, is often referred to as geostatistical marking. We examine how typical properties of interest in stochastic geometry and percolation theory, such as coverage probabilities and the existence of long-range connections, differ between Gilbert's model with radii given by some random field and Gilbert's model with radii assigned independently, but with the same marginal distribution. Among our main observations we find that complete coverage of ℝ2 does not necessarily happen simultaneously, and that the spatial dependence induced by the random field may both increase as well as decrease the critical threshold for percolation.

In this paper we analyze the first-order behavior (that is, the right-sided derivative) of the volume of the dilation A⊕tQ as t converges to 0. Here A and Q are subsets of n-dimensional Euclidean space, A has finite perimeter, and Q is finite. If Q consists of two points only, n and n+u, say, this derivative coincides up to a sign with the directional derivative of the covariogram of A in direction u. By known results for the covariogram, this derivative can therefore be expressed by the cosine transform of the surface area measure of A. We extend this result to finite sets Q and use it to determine the derivative of the contact distribution function with finite structuring element of a stationary random set at 0. The proofs are based on an approximation of the indicator function of A by smooth functions of bounded variation.

In this paper we consider the asymptotics of logarithmic tails of a perpetuity R=D∑j=1∞Qj∏k=1j-1Mk, where (Mn,Qn)n=1∞ are independent and identically distributed copies of (M,Q), for the case when ℙ(M∈[0,1))=1 and Q has all exponential moments. If M and Q are independent, under regular variation assumptions, we find the precise asymptotics of -logℙ(R>x) as x→∞. Moreover, we deal with the case of dependent M and Q, and give asymptotic bounds for -logℙ(R>x). It turns out that the dependence structure between M and Q has a significant impact on the asymptotic rate of logarithmic tails of R. Such a phenomenon is not observed in the case of heavy-tailed perpetuities.

Brown‒Resnick processes are max-stable processes that are associated to Gaussian processes. Their simulation is often based on the corresponding spectral representation which is not unique. We study to what extent simulation accuracy and efficiency can be improved by minimizing the maximal variance of the underlying Gaussian process. Such a minimization is a difficult mathematical problem that also depends on the geometry of the simulation domain. We extend Matheron's (1974) seminal contribution in two directions: (i) making his description of a minimal maximal variance explicit for convex variograms on symmetric domains, and (ii) proving that the same strategy also reduces the maximal variance for a huge class of nonconvex variograms representable through a Bernstein function. A simulation study confirms that our noncostly modification can lead to substantial improvements among Gaussian representations. We also compare it with three other established algorithms.

In this paper we consider a new type of urn scheme, where the selection probabilities are proportional to a weight function, which is linear but decreasing in the proportion of existing colours. We refer to it as the de-preferential urn scheme. We establish the almost-sure limit of the random configuration for any balanced replacement matrix R. In particular, we show that the limiting configuration is uniform on the set of colours if and only if R is a doubly stochastic matrix. We further establish the almost-sure limit of the vector of colour counts and prove central limit theorems for the random configuration as well as for the colour counts.

In this paper we develop renewal theorems for point processes with interarrival times ξ(Xn+1Xn…), where (Xn)n∈ℤ is a stochastic process with finite state space Σ and ξ:ΣA→ℝ is a Hölder continuous function on a subset ΣA⊂Σℕ. The theorems developed here unify and generalise the key renewal theorem for discrete measures and Lalley's renewal theorem for counting measures in symbolic dynamics. Moreover, they capture aspects of Markov renewal theory. The new renewal theorems allow for direct applications to problems in fractal and hyperbolic geometry, for instance to the problem of Minkowski measurability of self-conformal sets.

Let (Mt:t>0) be a Markov process of tessellations of ℝℓ, and let (𝒞t:t>0) be the process of their zero cells (zero polytopes), which has the same distribution as the corresponding process for Poisson hyperplane tessellations. In the present paper we describe the stationary zero cell process (at𝒞at:t∈ℝ),a>1, in terms of some regenerative structure and we show that it is a Bernoulli flow. An important application is to STIT tessellation processes.

We consider the random polytope Kn, defined as the convex hull of n points chosen independently and uniformly at random on the boundary of a smooth convex body in ℝd. We present both lower and upper variance bounds, a strong law of large numbers, and a central limit theorem for the intrinsic volumes of Kn. A normal approximation bound from Stein's method and estimates for surface bodies are among the tools involved.

We consider a Markov-modulated fluid flow production model under the D-policy, that is, as soon as the storage reaches level 0, the machine becomes idle until the total storage exceeds a predetermined threshold D. Thus, the production process alternates between a busy and an idle machine. During the busy period, the storage decreases linearly due to continuous production and increases due to supply; during the idle period, no production is rendered by the machine and the storage level increases by only supply arrivals. We consider two types of model with different supply process patterns: continuous inflows with linear rates (fluid type), and batch inflows, where the supplies arrive according to a Markov additive process (MAP) and their sizes are independent and have phase-type distributions depending on the type of arrival (MAP type). Four types of cost are considered: a setup cost, a production cost, a penalty cost for an idle machine, and a storage cost. Using tools from multidimensional martingale and hitting time theory, we derive explicit formulae for these cost functionals in the discounted case. Numerical examples, a sensitivity analysis, and insights are provided.

We define nearest-neighbour point processes on graphs with Euclidean edges and linear networks. They can be seen as analogues of renewal processes on the real line. We show that the Delaunay neighbourhood relation on a tree satisfies the Baddeley‒Møller consistency conditions and provide a characterisation of Markov functions with respect to this relation. We show that a modified relation defined in terms of the local geometry of the graph satisfies the consistency conditions for all graphs with Euclidean edges that do not contain triangles.

We introduce and study the class of branching-stable point measures, which can be seen as an analog of stable random variables when the branching mechanism for point measures replaces the usual addition. In contrast with the classical theory of stable (Lévy) processes, there exists a rich family of branching-stable point measures with a negative scaling exponent, which can be described as certain Crump‒Mode‒Jagers branching processes. We investigate the asymptotic behavior of their cumulative distribution functions, that is, the number of atoms in (-∞, x] as x→∞, and further depict the genealogical lineage of typical atoms. For both results, we rely crucially on the work of Biggins (1977), (1992).