Paper 1, Section II,
Part II, 2017
(a) Define a continuous time Markov chain with infinitesimal generator and jump chain .
(b) Let be a transient state of a continuous-time Markov chain with . Show that the time spent in state has an exponential distribution and explicitly state its parameter.
[You may use the fact that if , then for .]
(c) Let be an asymmetric random walk in continuous time on the non-negative integers with reflection at 0 , so that
Suppose that and . Show that for all , the total time spent in state is exponentially distributed with parameter .
Assume now that has some general distribution with probability generating function . Find the expected amount of time spent at 0 in terms of .