A careful and accessible exposition of functional analytic methods in stochastic analysis is provided in this book. It focuses on the interrelationship between three subjects in analysis: Markov processes, semi groups and elliptic boundary value problems. The author studies a general class of elliptic boundary value problems for second-order, Waldenfels integro-differential operators in partial differential equations and proves that this class of elliptic boundary value problems provides a general class of Feller semigroups in functional analysis. As an application, the author constructs a general class of Markov processes in probability in which a Markovian particle moves both by jumps and continuously in the state space until it 'dies' at the time when it reaches the set where the particle is definitely absorbed. Augmenting the 1st edition published in 2004, this edition includes four new chapters and eight re-worked and expanded chapters. It is amply illustrated and all chapters are rounded off with Notes and Comments where bibliographical references are primarily discussed. Thanks to the kind feedback from many readers, some errors in the first edition have been corrected. In order to keep the book up-to-date, new references have been added to the bibliography. Researchers and graduate students interested in PDEs, functional analysis and probability will find this volume useful.

This is a thorough and accessible exposition on the functional analytic approach to the problem of construction of Markov processes with Ventcel’ boundary conditions in probability theory. It presents new developments in the theory of singular integrals.

This work offers a highly useful, well developed reference on Markov processes, the universal model for random processes and evolutions. The wide range of applications, in exact sciences as well as in other areas like social studies, require a volume that offers a refresher on fundamentals before conveying the Markov processes and examples for

This is a thorough and accessible exposition on the functional analytic approach to the problem of construction of Markov processes with Ventcel’ boundary conditions in probability theory. It presents new developments in the theory of singular integrals.

This book is an easy-to-read reference providing a link between functional analysis and diffusion processes. More precisely, the book takes readers to a mathematical crossroads of functional analysis (macroscopic approach), partial differential equations (mesoscopic approach), and probability (microscopic approach) via the mathematics needed for the hard parts of diffusion processes. This work brings these three fields of analysis together and provides a profound stochastic insight (microscopic approach) into the study of elliptic boundary value problems. The author does a massive study of diffusion processes from a broad perspective and explains mathematical matters in a more easily readable way than one usually would find. The book is amply illustrated; 14 tables and 141 figures are provided with appropriate captions in such a fashion that readers can easily understand powerful techniques of functional analysis for the study of diffusion processes in probability. The scope of the author’s work has been and continues to be powerful methods of functional analysis for future research of elliptic boundary value problems and Markov processes via semigroups. A broad spectrum of readers can appreciate easily and effectively the stochastic intuition that this book conveys. Furthermore, the book will serve as a sound basis both for researchers and for graduate students in pure and applied mathematics who are interested in a modern version of the classical potential theory and Markov processes. For advanced undergraduates working in functional analysis, partial differential equations, and probability, it provides an effective opening to these three interrelated fields of analysis. Beginning graduate students and mathematicians in the field looking for a coherent overview will find the book to be a helpful beginning. This work will be a major influence in a very broad field of study for a long time.

This research monograph gives a detailed account of a theory which is mainly concerned with certain classes of degenerate differential operators, Markov semigroups and approximation processes. These mathematical objects are generated by arbitrary Markov operators acting on spaces of continuous functions defined on compact convex sets; the study of the interrelations between them constitutes one of the distinguishing features of the book. Among other things, this theory provides useful tools for studying large classes of initial-boundary value evolution problems, the main aim being to obtain a constructive approximation to the associated positive C0-semigroups by means of iterates of suitable positive approximating operators. As a consequence, a qualitative analysis of the solutions to the evolution problems can be efficiently developed. The book is mainly addressed to research mathematicians interested in modern approximation theory by positive linear operators and/or in the theory of positive C0-semigroups of operators and evolution equations. It could also serve as a textbook for a graduate level course.