A Levy process is a continuous-time analogue of a random walk, and as such, is at the cradle of modern theories of stochastic processes. Martingales, Markov processes, and diffusions are extensions and generalizations of these processes. In the past, representatives of the Levy class were considered most useful for applications to either Brownian motion or the Poisson process. Nowadays the need for modeling jumps, bursts, extremes and other irregular behavior of phenomena in nature and society has led to a renaissance of the theory of general Levy processes. Researchers and practitioners in fields as diverse as physics, meteorology, statistics, insurance, and finance have rediscovered the simplicity of Levy processes and their enormous flexibility in modeling tails, dependence and path behavior. This volume, with an excellent introductory preface, describes the state-of-the-art of this rapidly evolving subject with special emphasis on the non-Brownian world. Leading experts present surveys of recent developments, or focus on some most promising applications. Despite its special character, every topic is aimed at the non- specialist, keen on learning about the new exciting face of a rather aged class of processes. An extensive bibliography at the end of each article makes this an invaluable comprehensive reference text. For the researcher and graduate student, every article contains open problems and points out directions for futurearch. The accessible nature of the work makes this an ideal introductory text for graduate seminars in applied probability, stochastic processes, physics, finance, and telecommunications, and a unique guide to the world of Levy processes.

This comprehensive text gives an interesting and useful blend of the mathematical, probabilistic and statistical tools used in heavy-tail analysis. Heavy tails are characteristic of many phenomena where the probability of a single huge value impacts heavily. Record-breaking insurance losses, financial-log returns, files sizes stored on a server, transmission rates of files are all examples of heavy-tailed phenomena.

Key features:

* Unique text devoted to heavy-tails

* Emphasizes both probability modeling and statistical methods for fitting models. Most treatments focus on one or the other but not both

* Presents broad applicability of heavy-tails to the fields of data networks, finance (e.g., value-at- risk), insurance, and hydrology

* Clear, efficient and coherent exposition, balancing theory and actual data to show the applicability and limitations of certain methods

* Examines in detail the mathematical properties of the methodologies as well as their implementation in Splus or R statistical languages

* Exposition driven by numerous examples and exercises

Prerequisites for the reader include a prior course in stochastic processes and probability, some statistical background, some familiarity with time series analysis, and ability to use (or at least to learn) a statistics package such as R or Splus. This work will serve second-year graduate students and researchers in the areas of applied mathematics, statistics, operations research, electrical engineering, and economics.

This book examines the fundamental mathematical and stochastic process techniques needed to study the behavior of extreme values of phenomena based on independent and identically distributed random variables and vectors. It emphasizes the core primacy of three topics necessary for understanding extremes: the analytical theory of regularly varying functions; the probabilistic theory of point processes and random measures; and the link to asymptotic distribution approximations provided by the theory of weak convergence of probability measures in metric spaces.

A Levy process is a continuous-time analogue of a random walk, and as such, is at the cradle of modern theories of stochastic processes. Martingales, Markov processes, and diffusions are extensions and generalizations of these processes. In the past, representatives of the Levy class were considered most useful for applications to either Brownian motion or the Poisson process. Nowadays the need for modeling jumps, bursts, extremes and other irregular behavior of phenomena in nature and society has led to a renaissance of the theory of general Levy processes. Researchers and practitioners in fields as diverse as physics, meteorology, statistics, insurance, and finance have rediscovered the simplicity of Levy processes and their enormous flexibility in modeling tails, dependence and path behavior.

This volume, with an excellent introductory preface, describes the state-of-the-art of this rapidly evolving subject with special emphasis on the non-Brownian world. Leading experts present surveys of recent developments, or focus on some most promising applications. Despite its special character, every topic is aimed at the non- specialist, keen on learning about the new exciting face of a rather aged class of processes. An extensive bibliography at the end of each article makes this an invaluable comprehensive reference text. For the researcher and graduate student, every article contains open problems and points out directions for futurearch.

The accessible nature of the work makes this an ideal introductory text for graduate seminars in applied probability, stochastic processes, physics, finance, and telecommunications, and a unique guide to the world of Levy processes.

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Stochastic processes are necessary ingredients for building models of a wide variety of phenomena exhibiting time varying randomness. This text offers easy access to this fundamental topic for many students of applied sciences at many levels. It includes examples, exercises, applications, and computational procedures. It is uniquely useful for beginners and non-beginners in the field. No knowledge of measure theory is presumed.

Manyprobability books are written by mathematicians and have the built-in bias that the reader is assumed to be a mathematician coming to the material for its beauty. This textbook is geared towards beginning graduate students from a variety of disciplines whose primary focus is not necessarily mathematics for its own sake. Instead, "A Probability Path" is designed for those requiring a deep understanding of advanced probability for their research in statistics, applied probability, biology, operations research, mathematical finance and engineering.

A one-semester course is laid out in an efficient and readable manner covering the core material. The first three chapters provide a functioning knowledge of measure theory. Chapter 4 discusses independence, with expectation and integration covered in Chapter 5, followed by topics on different modes of convergence, laws of large numbers with applications to statistics (quantile and distribution function estimation) and applied probability. Two subsequent chapters offer a careful treatment of convergence in distribution and the central limit theorem. The final chapter treats conditional expectation and martingales, closing with a discussion of two fundamental theorems of mathematical finance.

Like "Adventures in Stochastic Processes," Resnick s related and very successful textbook, "A Probability Path" is rich in appropriate examples, illustrations and problems and is suitable for classroom use or self-study. The present uncorrected, softcover reprintis designed to make this classic textbookavailable to a wider audience.

"This book is different from the classical textbooks on probability theory in that it treats the measure theoretic background not as a prerequisite but as an integral part of probability theory. The result is that the reader gets a thorough and well-structured framework needed to understand the deeper concepts of current day advanced probability as it is used in statistics, engineering, biology and finance.... The pace of the book is quick and disciplined. Yet there are ample examples sprinkled over the entire book and each chapter finishes with a wealthy section of inspiring problems. "

Publications of the International Statistical Institute

"This textbook offers material for a one-semester course in probability, addressed to students whose primary focus is not necessarily mathematics.... Each chapter is completed by an exercises section. Carefully selected examples enlighten the reader in many situations. The book is an excellent introduction to probability and its applications. "

Revue Roumaine de Mathematiques Pures et Appliquees"

Stochastic processes are necessary ingredients for building models of a wide variety of phenomena exhibiting time varying randomness. This text offers easy access to this fundamental topic for many students of applied sciences at many levels. It includes examples, exercises, applications, and computational procedures. It is uniquely useful for beginners and non-beginners in the field. No knowledge of measure theory is presumed.

Many probability books are written by mathematicians and have the built-in bias that the reader is assumed to be a mathematician coming to the material for its beauty. This textbook is geared towards beginning graduate students from a variety of disciplines whose primary focus is not necessarily mathematics for its own sake. Instead, A Probability Path is designed for those requiring a deep understanding of advanced probability for their research in statistics, applied probability, biology, operations research, mathematical finance, and engineering. A one-semester course is laid out in an efficient and readable manner covering the core material. The first three chapters provide a functioning knowledge of measure theory. Chapter 4 discusses independence, with expectation and integration covered in Chapter 5, followed by topics on different modes of convergence, laws of large numbers with applications to statistics (quantile and distribution function estimation), and applied probability. Two subsequent chapters offer a careful treatment of convergence in distribution and the central limit theorem. The final chapter treats conditional expectation and martingales, closing with a discussion of two fundamental theorems of mathematical finance. Like Adventures in Stochastic Processes, Resnick's related and very successful textbook, A Probability Path is rich in appropriate examples, illustrations, and problems, and is suitable for classroom use or self-study. The present uncorrected, softcover reprint is designed to make this classic textbook available to a wider audience. This book is different from the classical textbooks on probability theory in that it treats the measure theoretic background not as a prerequisite but as an integral part of probability theory. The result is that the reader gets a thorough and well-structured framework needed to understand the deeper concepts of current day advanced probability as it is used in statistics, engineering, biology and finance...The pace of the book is quick and disciplined. Yet there are ample examples sprinkled over the entire book and each chapter finishes with a wealthy section of inspiring problems. -Publications of the International Statistical Institute This textbook offers material for a one-semester course in probability, addressed to students whose primary focus is not necessarily mathematics...Each chapter is completed by an exercises section. Carefully selected examples enlighten the reader in many situations. The book is an excellent introduction to probability and its applications. -Revue Roumaine de Mathematiques Pures et Appliquees