Probability of two or more transitions is o($\Delta$ t).

32 Views Asked by At

Assume that $X_t$ is a continuous time Markov-chain with finite state space, and assume it is regular. That is:

If $t_1<t_2\ldots <t_n $ then

$P(X_{t_n}=i_n|X_{t_1}=i_1\cap X_{t_2}=i_2\cap\ldots \cap X_{t_{n-1}}=i_{n-1})=P(X_{t_n}=i_n| X_{t_{n-1}}=i_{n-1})$.

Define $P_{ij}(a,b)=P(X_b=j|X_a=i)$.

For $i\ne j$ the quantity

$\lim\limits_{\Delta t\rightarrow0^+}\frac{P_{ij}(t,t+\Delta t)}{\Delta t}=\mu_{ij}(t)$, exists and is continuous in $t$.

We also define

$\nu _i(t)=\lim\limits_{\Delta t\rightarrow0^+}\frac{1-P_{ii}(t,t+\Delta t)}{\Delta t}$.

Then some books say that the probability of two or more transitions in an intervel of length $\Delta t$ is $o(\Delta t)$. But how exactly is this proved?