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The large-time behavior of a nonlinearly coupled pair of measure-valued transport equations with discontinuous boundary conditions, parameterized by a positive real-valued parameter $\lambda$, is considered. These equations describe the hydrodynamic or fluid limit of many-server queues with reneging (with traffic intensity $\lambda$), which model phenomena in diverse disciplines, including biology and operations research. For a broad class of reneging distributions with finite mean and service distributions with finite mean and hazard rate function that is either decreasing or bounded away from zero and infinity, it is shown that if the fluid equations have a unique invariant state, then the Dirac measure at this state is the unique random fixed point of the fluid equations, which implies that the stationary distributions of scaled $N$-server systems converge to the unique invariant state of the corresponding fluid equations. Moreover, when $\lambda\ne 1$, it is shown that the solution to the fluid equation starting from any initial condition converges to this unique invariant state in the large time limit. The proof techniques are different under the two sets of assumptions on the service distribution. When the hazard rate function is decreasing, a reformulation of the dynamics in terms of a certain renewal equation is used, in conjunction with recursive asymptotic estimates. When the hazard rate function is bounded away from zero and infinity, the proof uses an extended relative entropy functional as a Lyapunov function. Analogous large-time convergence results are also established for a system of coupled measure-valued equations modeling a multiclass queue.

A many-server queue operating under the earliest deadline first discipline, where the distributions of service time and deadline are generic, is studied at the law of large numbers scale. Fluid model equations, formulated in terms of the many-server transport equation and the recently introduced measure-valued Skorohod map, are proposed as a means of characterizing the limit. The main results are the uniqueness of solutions to these equations, and the law of large numbers scale convergence to the solutions., Comment: Minor changes are done

The Skorokhod map on the half-line has proved to be a useful tool for studying processes with non-negativity constraints. In this work we introduce a measure-valued analog of this map that transforms each element $\zeta$ of a certain class of c\`{a}dl\`{a}g paths that take values in the space of signed measures on the half-line to a c\`{a}dl\`{a}g path that takes values in the space of non-negative measures on $[0,\infty)$ in such a way that for each $x > 0$, the path $t \mapsto \zeta_t[0,x]$ is transformed via a Skorokhod map on the half-line, and the regulating functions for different $x > 0$ are coupled. We establish regularity properties of this map and show that the map provides a convenient tool for studying queueing systems in which tasks are prioritized according to a continuous parameter. Three such well known models are the earliest-deadline-first, the shortest-job-first and the shortest-remaining-processing-time scheduling policies. For these applications, we show how the map provides a unified framework within which to form fluid model equations, prove uniqueness of solutions to these equations and establish convergence of scaled state processes to the fluid model. In particular, for these models, we obtain new convergence results in time-inhomogeneous settings, which appear to fall outside the purview of existing approaches., Comment: 51 pages, 1 figure

Density dependent Markov population processes in large populations of size $N$ were shown by Kurtz (1970, 1971) to be well approximated over finite time intervals by the solution of the differential equations that describe their average drift, and to exhibit stochastic fluctuations about this deterministic solution on the scale $\sqrt N$ that can be approximated by a diffusion process. Here, motivated by an example from evolutionary biology, we are concerned with describing how such a process leaves an absorbing boundary. Initially, one or more of the populations is of size much smaller than $N$, and the length of time taken until all populations have sizes comparable to $N$ then becomes infinite as $N \to \infty$. Under suitable assumptions, we show that in the early stages of development, up to the time when all populations have sizes at least $N^{1-\alpha}$, for $1/3 < \alpha < 1$, the process can be accurately approximated in total variation by a Markov branching process. Thereafter, the process is well approximated by the deterministic solution starting from the original initial point, but with a random time delay. Analogous behaviour is also established for a Markov process approaching an equilibrium on a boundary, where one or more of the populations become extinct., Comment: 50 pages

A single-server queuing model is considered with customers that have deadlines. If a customer's deadline elapses before service is offered, the customer abandons the system (customers do not abandon while being served). When the server becomes available, it offers service to the customer having earliest deadline among those that are in the queue. We obtain a fluid limit of the queue length and abandonment processes and for the occupation measure of deadlines, in the form of measure-valued processes. We characterize the limit by means of a Skorohod problem in a time-varying domain, which has an explicit solution. The fluid limits also describe a certain process called the frontier, that is well known to play a key role in systems operating under this scheduling policy., Comment: 28 pages. Results are generalized

A many-server queueing system is considered in which customers with independent and identically distributed service times enter service in the order of arrival. The state of the system is represented by a process that describes the total number of customers in the system, as well as a measure-valued process that keeps track of the ages of customers in service, leading to a Markovian description of the dynamics. Under suitable assumptions, a functional central limit theorem is established for the sequence of (centered and scaled) state processes as the number of servers goes to infinity. The limit process describing the total number in system is shown to be an Ito diffusion with a constant diffusion coefficient that is insensitive to the service distribution. The limit of the sequence of (centered and scaled) age processes is shown to be a Hilbert space valued diffusion that can also be characterized as the unique solution of a stochastic partial differential equation that is coupled with the Ito diffusion. Furthermore, the limit processes are shown to be semimartingales and to possess a strong Markov property., Comment: 59 pages

This work considers a many-server queueing system in which customers with i.i.d., generally distributed service times enter service in the order of arrival. The dynamics of the system is represented in terms of a process that describes the total number of customers in the system, as well as a measure-valued process that keeps track of the ages of customers in service. Under mild assumptions on the service time distribution, as the number of servers goes to infinity, a law of large numbers (or fluid) limit is established for this pair of processes. The limit is characterised as the unique solution to a coupled pair of integral equations, which admits a fairly explicit representation. As a corollary, the fluid limits of several other functionals of interest, such as the waiting time, are also obtained. Furthermore, in the time-homogeneous setting, the fluid limit is shown to converge to its equilibrium. Along the way, some results of independent interest are obtained, including a continuous mapping result and a maximality property of the fluid limit. A motivation for studying these systems is that they arise as models of computer data systems and call centers., Comment: 57 pages

Permanental processes can be viewed as a generalisation of squared centered Gaussian processes. We develop in this paper two main subjects. The first one analyses the connections of these processes with the local times of general Markov processes. The second deals with Bosonian point processes and the Bose-Einstein condensation. The obtained results in both directions are related and based on the notion of infinite divisibility., Comment: 38 pages

The problem of finding a necessary and sufficient condition for the continuity of the local times for a general Markov process is still open. Barlow and Hawkes have completely treated the case of the L\'{e}vy processes, and Marcus and Rosen have solved the case of the strongly symmetric Markov processes. We treat here the continuity of the local times of Borel right processes. Our approach unifies that of Barlow and Hawkes and of Marcus and Rosen, by using an associated Gaussian process, that appears as a limit in a CLT involving the local time process., Comment: Published at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/009117906000000980 in the Annals of Probability (http://www.imstat.org/aop/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org)

We show that, up to multiplication by constants, a Gaussian process has an infinitely divisible square if and only if its covariance is the Green function of a transient Markov process., Comment: Published at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/009117905000000684 in the Annals of Probability (http://www.imstat.org/aop/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org)

We consider a stochastic flow in which individual particles follow skew Brownian motions, with each one of these processes driven by the same Brownian motion. One does not have uniqueness for the solutions of the corresponding stochastic differential equation simultaneously for all real initial conditions. Due to this lack of the simultaneous strong uniqueness for the whole system of stochastic differential equations, the flow contains lenses, that is, pairs of skew Brownian motions which start at the same point, bifurcate, and then coalesce in a finite time. The paper contains qualitative and quantitative (distributional) results on the geometry of the flow and lenses., Comment: Published at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/009117904000000711 in the Annals of Probability (http://www.imstat.org/aop/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org)

We prove that two skew Brownian motions with the same skewness parameter (different from 0) and driven by the same Brownian motion coalesce a.s.