Skip to main content

Unimodality and Bounds of Modes for Distributions of Generalized Sojourn Times

  • Conference paper
Stochastic Methods in Biology

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Biomathematics ((LNBM,volume 70))

Summary

The distribution of the generalized sojourn time T for a birth-and-death process up to the first passage time to the state n, starting at the state m (m < n), is considered. The generalized sojourn time is the sum of the sojourn times at the states i, over i = 0,1,...,n−1, with a state-dependent signed weight. A main new result of the paper is that the distribution of T is unimodal. Explicit description of the distribution is given by using exponential distributions on the positive and the negative axis. Bounds of the mode are derived from this description. Other bounds of the modes of general unimodal distributions are given in terms of absolute moments and central absolute moments. Infinite divisibility of T is also proved. These results are extended to generalized sojourn times of diffusion processes, which arise in models of neurobiology and population genetics.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. Crow, J.F., and Kimura, M., An introduction to population genetics theory. Harper and Row, New York, 1970.

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  2. Feller, W., An introduction to probability theory and its applications. Vol.1, third ed., and Vol.2, second ed., Wiley, New York, 1968 and 1971.

    Google Scholar 

  3. Goldie, C., A class of infinitely divisible random variables. Proc. Cambridge Phil. Soc. 63 (1967) 1141–1143.

    MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  4. Holden, A.V., Models of the stochastic activity of neurons. Lecture Notes in Biomathematics, Vol. 12, Springer, Berlin, 1976.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  5. Ibragimov, I.A., On the composition of unimodal distributions. Theor. Probab. Appl. 2 (1957) 117–119.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Itô, K., and McKean, H.P., Jr., Diffusion processes and their sample paths. Springer, Berlin, 1965.

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  7. Johnson, N.L., and Rogers, C., The moment problem for unimodal distributions. Ann. Math. Statist. 22 (1951) 433–439.

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  8. Keilson, J., On the unimodality of passage time densities in birth-death processes. Statistica Neerlandica 35 (1981) 49–55.

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  9. Kent, J.T., Discussion of F.W. Steutel’s paper. Scand. J. Statist. 6 (1979) 62–63.

    Google Scholar 

  10. Kent, J.T., The appearance of a multivariate exponential distribution in sojourn times for birth-death and diffusion processes, in Probability, Statistics and Analysis, ed. by J.F.C. Kingman et al. (London Math. Soc. Lecture Notes Series, No.79, 1983 ) 161–179.

    Google Scholar 

  11. Knight, F.B., Characterization of the Lévy measures of inverse local times of gap diffusion, in Seminar on Stochastic Processes, 1981, ed. by E. Cinlar et al. ( Birkhäuser, Boston, 1981 ) 53–78.

    Google Scholar 

  12. Ludwig, D., Stochastic population theories. Lecture Notes in Biomathematics, Vol. 3, Springer, Berlin, 1974.

    Google Scholar 

  13. Maruyama, T., Stochastic problems in population genetics. Lecture Notes in Biomathematics, Vol. 17, Springer, Berlin, 1977.

    Google Scholar 

  14. Nagylaki, T., The moments of stochastic integrals and the distribtuion of sojourn times. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 71 (1974) 746–749.

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  15. Ricciardi, L.M., Diffusion processes and related topics in biology. Lecture Notes in Biomathematics, Vol.14, Springer, 1977.

    Google Scholar 

  16. Ricciardi, L.M., Sacerdote, L., and Sato, S., On an integral equation for first-passage-time probability densities. J. Appl. Probab. 21 (1984) 302–314.

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  17. Rösler, U., Unimodality of passage times for one-dimensional strong Markov processes. Ann. Probab. 8 (1980) 853–859.

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  18. Sato, K., Modes and moments of unimodal distributions. To appear in Ann. Statist. Math.

    Google Scholar 

  19. Sato, K., Extension of Yamazato’s results on zeros of a system of polynomials and application to sojourn time distributions. In preparation.

    Google Scholar 

  20. Sato, K., and Yamazato, M., On distribution functions of class L. Zeit. Wahrsch. Verw. Geb. 43 (1978) 273–308.

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  21. Sato, S., On the moments of the firing interval of the diffusion approximated model neuron. Math. Biosc. 39 (1978) 53–70.

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  22. Yamazato, M., Unimodality of infinitely divisible distribution functions of class L. Ann. Probab. 6 (1978) 523–531.

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  23. Yamazato, M., Characterization of the class of upward first passage time distributions of nonnegative birth and death processes and its applications. To appear.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 1987 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

Sato, Ki. (1987). Unimodality and Bounds of Modes for Distributions of Generalized Sojourn Times. In: Kimura, M., Kallianpur, G., Hida, T. (eds) Stochastic Methods in Biology. Lecture Notes in Biomathematics, vol 70. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-46599-4_17

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-46599-4_17

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-17648-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-46599-4

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics