Cutpoints of (1,2) and (2,1) random walks on the lattice of positive half line

TL;DR

This paper investigates the asymptotic behavior and cutpoints of (1,2) and (2,1) random walks on the positive half line, providing criteria for the finiteness of cutpoints and analyzing their distribution.

Contribution

It introduces new criteria for the finiteness of cutpoints in (1,2) and (2,1) random walks, extending previous results and analyzing asymptotics in near-recurrent cases.

Findings

Criteria for finiteness of cutpoints established.

Asymptotic behaviors of escape and hitting probabilities analyzed.

Number of cutpoints in near-recurrent walks studied.

Abstract

In this paper, we study (1,2) and (2,1) random walks in varying environments on the lattice of positive half line. We assume that the transition probabilities at site $n$ are asymptotically constants as $n\rightarrow\infty.$ For (1,2) random walk, we get some elaborate asymptotic behaviours of various escape probabilities and hitting probabilities of the walk. Such observations and some delicate analysis of continued fractions and the product of nonnegative matrices enable us to give criteria for finiteness of the number of cutpoints of both (1,2) and (2,1) random walks, which generalize E. Cs\'aki, A. F\"oldes and P. R\'ev\'esz [J. Theor. Probab. 23: 624-638 (2010)] and H.-M. Wang [Markov Processes Relat. Fields 25: 125-148 (2019)]. For near-recurrent random walks, whenever there are infinitely many cutpoints, we also study the asymptotics of the number of cutpoints in $[0,n].$