Lectures on Random Evolution


Book Description

Random evolution denotes a class of stochastic processes which evolve according to a rule which varies in time according to jumps. This is in contrast to diffusion processes, which assume that the rule changes continuously with time. Random evolutions provide a very flexible language, having the advantage that they permit direct numerical simulation-which is not possible for a diffusion process. Furthermore, they allow connections with hyperbolic partial differential equations and the kinetic theory of gases, which is impossible within the domain of diffusion proceses. They also posses great geometric invariance, allowing formulation on an arbitrary Riemannian manifold. In the field of stochastic stability, random evolutions furnish some easily computable models in which to study the Lyapunov exponent and rotation numbers of oscillators under the influence of noise. This monograph presents the various aspects of random evolution in an accessible and interesting format which will appeal to a large scientific audience.




Behave


Book Description

New York Times bestseller • Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize • One of the Washington Post's 10 Best Books of the Year “It’s no exaggeration to say that Behave is one of the best nonfiction books I’ve ever read.” —David P. Barash, The Wall Street Journal "It has my vote for science book of the year.” —Parul Sehgal, The New York Times "Immensely readable, often hilarious...Hands-down one of the best books I’ve read in years. I loved it." —Dina Temple-Raston, The Washington Post From the bestselling author of A Primate's Memoir and the forthcoming Determined: A Science of Life Without Free Will comes a landmark, genre-defining examination of human behavior and an answer to the question: Why do we do the things we do? Behave is one of the most dazzling tours d’horizon of the science of human behavior ever attempted. Moving across a range of disciplines, Sapolsky—a neuroscientist and primatologist—uncovers the hidden story of our actions. Undertaking some of our thorniest questions relating to tribalism and xenophobia, hierarchy and competition, and war and peace, Behave is a towering achievement—a majestic synthesis of cutting-edge research and a heroic exploration of why we ultimately do the things we do . . . for good and for ill.




Random Evolutions and their Applications


Book Description

The book is devoted to the new trends in random evolutions and their various applications to stochastic evolutionary sytems (SES). Such new developments as the analogue of Dynkin's formulae, boundary value problems, stochastic stability and optimal control of random evolutions, stochastic evolutionary equations driven by martingale measures are considered. The book also contains such new trends in applied probability as stochastic models of financial and insurance mathematics in an incomplete market. In the famous classical financial mathematics Black-Scholes model of a (B,S) market for securities prices, which is used for the description of the evolution of bonds and stocks prices and also for their derivatives, such as options, futures, forward contracts, etc., it is supposed that the dynamic of bonds and stocks prices are set by a linear differential and linear stochastic differential equations, respectively, with interest rate, appreciation rate and volatility such that they are predictable processes. Also, in the Arrow-Debreu economy, the securities prices which support a Radner dynamic equilibrium are a combination of an Ito process and a random point process, with the all coefficients and jumps being predictable processes.




Introduction to Random Graphs


Book Description

The text covers random graphs from the basic to the advanced, including numerous exercises and recommendations for further reading.




Icons of Evolution


Book Description

Everything you were taught about evolution is wrong.




Darwin's Black Box


Book Description

Behe argues that the complexity of cellular biochemistry argues against Darwin's gradual evolution.




Inhomogeneous Random Evolutions and Their Applications


Book Description

Inhomogeneous Random Evolutions and Their Applications explains how to model various dynamical systems in finance and insurance with non-homogeneous in time characteristics. It includes modeling for: financial underlying and derivatives via Levy processes with time-dependent characteristics; limit order books in the algorithmic and HFT with counting price changes processes having time-dependent intensities; risk processes which count number of claims with time-dependent conditional intensities; multi-asset price impact from distressed selling; regime-switching Levy-driven diffusion-based price dynamics. Initial models for those systems are very complicated, which is why the author’s approach helps to simplified their study. The book uses a very general approach for modeling of those systems via abstract inhomogeneous random evolutions in Banach spaces. To simplify their investigation, it applies the first averaging principle (long-run stability property or law of large numbers [LLN]) to get deterministic function on the long run. To eliminate the rate of convergence in the LLN, it uses secondly the functional central limit theorem (FCLT) such that the associated cumulative process, centered around that deterministic function and suitably scaled in time, may be approximated by an orthogonal martingale measure, in general; and by standard Brownian motion, in particular, if the scale parameter increases. Thus, this approach allows the author to easily link, for example, microscopic activities with macroscopic ones in HFT, connecting the parameters driving the HFT with the daily volatilities. This method also helps to easily calculate ruin and ultimate ruin probabilities for the risk process. All results in the book are new and original, and can be easily implemented in practice.




Lectures in Astrobiology


Book Description

First comprehensive, beginning graduate level book on the emergent science of astrobiology.




Telegraph Processes and Option Pricing


Book Description

This book provides an extensive, systematic overview of the modern theory of telegraph processes and their multidimensional counterparts, together with numerous fruitful applications in financial modelling. Focusing on stochastic processes of bounded variation instead of classical diffusion, or more generally, Lévy processes, has two obvious benefits. First, the mathematical technique is much simpler, which helps to concentrate on the key problems of stochastic analysis and applications, including financial market modelling. Second, this approach overcomes some shortcomings of the (parabolic) nature of classical diffusions that contradict physical intuition, such as infinite propagation velocity and infinite total variation of paths. In this second edition, some sections of the previous text are included without any changes, while most others have been expanded and significantly revised. These are supplemented by predominantly new results concerning piecewise linear processes with arbitrary sequences of velocities, jump amplitudes, and switching intensities. The chapter on functionals of the telegraph process has been significantly expanded by adding sections on exponential functionals, telegraph meanders and running extrema, the times of the first passages of telegraph processes with alternating random jumps, and distribution of the Euclidean distance between two independent telegraph processes. A new chapter on the multidimensional counterparts of the telegraph processes is also included. The book is intended for graduate students in mathematics, probability, statistics and quantitative finance, and for researchers working at academic institutions, in industry and engineering. It can also be used by university lecturers and professionals in various applied areas.




Lectures on Probability Theory


Book Description

This book contains work-outs of the notes of three 15-hour courses of lectures which constitute surveys on the concerned topics given at the St. Flour Probability Summer School in July 1992. The first course, by D. Bakry, is concerned with hypercontractivity properties and their use in semi-group theory, namely Sobolev and Log Sobolev inequa- lities, with estimations on the density of the semi-groups. The second one, by R.D. Gill, is about statistics on survi- val analysis; it includes product-integral theory, Kaplan- Meier estimators, and a look at cryptography and generation of randomness. The third one, by S.A. Molchanov, covers three aspects of random media: homogenization theory, loca- lization properties and intermittency. Each of these chap- ters provides an introduction to and survey of its subject.