No abstract

We consider the planar random motion of a particle that moves with constant finite speed c and, at Poisson-distributed times, changes its direction θ with uniform law in [0, 2π). This model represents the natural two-dimensional counterpart of the wellknown Goldstein-Kac telegraph process. For the particle's position (X(t), Y (t)), t > 0, we obtain the explicit conditional distribution when the number of changes of direction is fixed. From this, we derive the explicit probability law f (x, y, t) of (X(t), Y (t)) and show that the density p(x, y, t) of its absolutely continuous component is the fundamental solution to the planar wave equation with damping. We also show that, under the usual Kac condition on the velocity c and the intensity λ of the Poisson process, the density p tends to the transition density of planar Brownian motion. Some discussions concerning the probabilistic structure of wave diffusion with damping are presented and some applications of the model are sketched.

No abstract

We consider the planar random motion of a particle that moves with constant finite speed c and, at Poisson-distributed times, changes its direction θ with uniform law in [0, 2π). This model represents the natural two-dimensional counterpart of the well-known Goldstein–Kac telegraph process. For the particle's position (X(t), Y(t)), t > 0, we obtain the explicit conditional distribution when the number of changes of direction is fixed. From this, we derive the explicit probability law f(x, y, t) of (X(t), Y(t)) and show that the density p(x, y, t) of its absolutely continuous component is the fundamental solution to the planar wave equation with damping. We also show that, under the usual Kac condition on the velocity c and the intensity λ of the Poisson process, the density p tends to the transition density of planar Brownian motion. Some discussions concerning the probabilistic structure of wave diffusion with damping are presented and some applications of the model are sketched.

The paper starts by giving a motivation for this research and justifying the considered stochastic diffusion models for cosmic microwave background radiation studies. Then it derives the exact solution in terms of a series expansion to a hyperbolic diffusion equation on the unit sphere. The Cauchy problem with random initial conditions is studied. All assumptions are stated in terms of the angular power spectrum of the initial conditions. An approximation to the solution is given and analysed by finitely truncating the series expansion. The upper bounds for the convergence rates of the approximation errors are derived. Smoothness properties of the solution and its approximation are investigated. It is demonstrated that the sample Hölder continuity of these spherical fields is related to the decay of the angular power spectrum. Numerical studies of approximations to the solution and applications to cosmic microwave background data are presented to illustrate the theoretical results.