Elementary treatments of Markov chains, especially those devoted to discrete-time and finite state-space theory, leave the impression that everything is smooth and easy to understand. This exposition of the works of Kolmogorov, Feller, Chung, Kato, and other mathematical luminaries, which focuses on time-continuous chains but is not so far from being elementary itself, reminds us again that the impression is false: an infinite, but denumerable, state-space is where the fun begins. If you have not heard of Blackwell's example (in which all states are instantaneous), do not understand what the minimal process is, or do not know what happens after explosion, dive right in. But beware lest you are enchanted: 'There are more spells than your commonplace magicians ever dreamed of.'

This book features selected and peer-reviewed lectures presented at the 3rd Semigroups of Operators: Theory and Applications Conference, held in Kazimierz Dolny, Poland, in October 2018 to mark the 85th birthday of Jan Kisynski. Held every five years, the conference offers a forum for mathematicians using semigroup theory to discover what is happening outside their particular field of research and helps establish new links between various sub-disciplines of semigroup theory, stochastic processes, differential equations and the applied fields. The book is intended for researchers, postgraduate and senior students working in operator theory, partial differential equations, probability and stochastic processes, analytical methods in biology and other natural sciences, optimisation and optimal control. The theory of semigroups of operators is a well-developed branch of functional analysis. Its foundations were laid at the beginning of the 20th century, while Hille and Yosida's fundamental generation theorem dates back to the forties. The theory was originally designed as a universal language for partial differential equations and stochastic processes but, at the same time, it started to become an independent branch of operator theory. Today, it still has the same distinctive character: it develops rapidly by posing new 'internal' questions and, in answering them, discovering new methods that can be used in applications. On the other hand, it is being influenced by questions from PDE's and stochastic processes as well as from applied sciences such as mathematical biology and optimal control and, as a result, it continually gathers new momentum. However, many results, both from semigroup theory itself and the applied sciences, are phrased in discipline-specific languages and are hardly known to the broader community.

This book presents a detailed and contemporary account of the classical theory of convergence of semigroups and its more recent development treating the case where the limit semigroup, in contrast to the approximating semigroups, acts merely on a subspace of the original Banach space (this is the case, for example, with singular perturbations). The author demonstrates the far-reaching applications of this theory using real examples from various branches of pure and applied mathematics, with a particular emphasis on mathematical biology. The book may serve as a useful reference, containing a significant number of new results ranging from the analysis of fish populations to signaling pathways in living cells. It comprises many short chapters, which allows readers to pick and choose those topics most relevant to them, and it contains 160 end-of-chapter exercises so that readers can test their understanding of the material as they go along.

Many results, both from semi group theory itself and from the applied sciences, are phrased in discipline-specific languages and hence are hardly known to a broader community. This volume contains a selection of lectures presented at a conference that was organised as a forum for all mathematicians using semi group theory to learn what is happening outside their own field of research. The collection will help to establish a number of new links between various sub-disciplines of semigroup theory, stochastic processes, differential equations and the applied fields. The theory of semigroups of operators is a well-developed branch of functional analysis. Its foundations were laid at the beginning of the 20th century, while the fundamental generation theorem of Hille and Yosida dates back to the forties. The theory was, from the very beginning, designed as a universal language for partial differential equations and stochastic processes, but at the same time it started to live as an independent branch of operator theory. Nowadays, it still has the same distinctive flavour: it develops rapidly by posing new 'internal' questions and in answering them, discovering new methods that can be used in applications. On the other hand, it is influenced by questions from PDEs and stochastic processes as well as from applied sciences such as mathematical biology and optimal control, and thus it continually gathers a new momentum. Researchers and postgraduate students working in operator theory, partial differential equations, probability and stochastic processes, analytical methods in biology and other natural sciences, optimization and optimal control will find this volume useful.

Many results, both from semi group theory itself and from the applied sciences, are phrased in discipline-specific languages and hence are hardly known to a broader community. This volume contains a selection of lectures presented at a conference that was organised as a forum for all mathematicians using semi group theory to learn what is happening outside their own field of research. The collection will help to establish a number of new links between various sub-disciplines of semigroup theory, stochastic processes, differential equations and the applied fields. The theory of semigroups of operators is a well-developed branch of functional analysis. Its foundations were laid at the beginning of the 20th century, while the fundamental generation theorem of Hille and Yosida dates back to the forties. The theory was, from the very beginning, designed as a universal language for partial differential equations and stochastic processes, but at the same time it started to live as an independent branch of operator theory. Nowadays, it still has the same distinctive flavour: it develops rapidly by posing new 'internal' questions and in answering them, discovering new methods that can be used in applications. On the other hand, it is influenced by questions from PDEs and stochastic processes as well as from applied sciences such as mathematical biology and optimal control, and thus it continually gathers a new momentum. Researchers and postgraduate students working in operator theory, partial differential equations, probability and stochastic processes, analytical methods in biology and other natural sciences, optimization and optimal control will find this volume useful.

This text is designed both for students of probability and stochastic processes, and for students of functional analysis. For the reader not familiar with functional analysis a detailed introduction to necessary notions and facts is provided. However, this is not a straight textbook in functional analysis; rather, it presents some chosen parts of functional analysis that can help understand ideas from probability and stochastic processes. The subjects range from basic Hilbert and Banach spaces, through weak topologies and Banach algebras, to the theory of semigroups of bounded linear operators. Numerous standard and non-standard examples and exercises make the book suitable as a course textbook or for self-study.

This text is designed both for students of probability and stochastic processes, and for students of functional analysis. For the reader not familiar with functional analysis a detailed introduction to necessary notions and facts is provided. However, this is not a straight textbook in functional analysis; rather, it presents some chosen parts of functional analysis that can help understand ideas from probability and stochastic processes. The subjects range from basic Hilbert and Banach spaces, through weak topologies and Banach algebras, to the theory of semigroups of bounded linear operators. Numerous standard and non-standard examples and exercises make the book suitable as a course textbook or for self-study.

This authored monograph presents a mathematical description of the time evolution of neutral genomic regions in terms of the differential Lyapunov equation. The qualitative behavior of its solutions, with respect to different mutation models and demographic patterns, can be characterized using operator semi group theory. Mutation and drift are two of the main genetic forces, which act on genes of individuals in populations. Their effects are influenced by population dynamics. This book covers the application to two mutation models: single step mutation for microsatellite loci and single-base substitutions. The effects of demographic change to the asymptotic of the distribution are also covered. The target audience primarily covers researchers and experts in the field but the book may also be beneficial for graduate students.