Kai Lai Chung
exists for every i (Theorem 9 of [3]).Following Levy the state i is called stable or instantaneous according as gt-as finite or infinite.We refer to [2 ] for the foundations of the theory of Markov chains under consideration.Although knowledge of these foundations will be necessary for a thorough understanding of what follows, we shall strive to make the present paper readable by itself.Let i be a stable state with q,>0; such a state always exists unless P{x(t) =x(0), 0^t<°° }=l [8, p. 375].Suppose that P{x(0)>=*} =1.LetX=X,(w) be the "first sojourn time" in the state i, namely the length of the first tinterval in which x(t, w)=i (seeTheorem 1 of [2]).Then P{\^t} =l-e~">', t^O [3, p. 54].Let j be an arbitrary state (not oo!) and defineIf J9*i, a is the "first entrance time intoj"; ii j = i, a is the "second entrance time into i" (the first being zero by hypothesis).It is easily shown that a is a random variable in the broad sense, namely a measurable w-iunction defined on a measurable w-set whose probability may be less than one.We define its distribution function in the broad sense by Fij(t)=P{a^t}.Now it can be proved that the two random variables X and a-X (which may be zero with positive probability) are independent^).This is a special case of Theorem 5 of [2], but we give a simple proof as follows.Let us first note that the distribution of a -X may be derived as follows.It can be shown that(3) a(w) considered as a point on the i-axis is the limit from the right of points of Sj(w) ={t: x(t, w) =j}; hence we havewhere h = 2~m, ra->• oo.Now for each 5 > 0 define two random variables X,=X,(w) and a, = aa(w) on the set {w: x(s, w)=i} as follows: X"(w) is the supremum of T such that x(t, w)=i, s^t<s + T; as(w) is the infimum of t such that t>\"(w) and x(t, w) =j.Thus X0 and a0 reduce to the previous X (2) The random variables Zi(w), ■■■, z"(w), with domains of definition Ai, • ■• , A", are said to be independent iff P{ flLx A*[z*M Set] }/P{ f|Li A*l = LTt-i P{A*tz*W £c*]}/P(At) for every real Cx, • • • , ck.(3) In fact, the set Sj(w) is dense in itself (see [2, §4, (ii)]).