Fractional Poisson process
In probability theory, a fractional Poisson process is a stochastic process to model the long-memory dynamics of a stream of counts. The time interval between each pair of consecutive counts follows the non-exponential power-law distribution with parameter , which has physical dimension , where . In other words, fractional Poisson process is non-Markov counting stochastic process which exhibits non-exponential distribution of interarrival times. The fractional Poisson process is a continuous-time process which can be thought of as natural generalization of the well-known Poisson process. Fractional Poisson probability distribution is a new member of discrete probability distributions.
The fractional Poisson process, Fractional compound Poisson process and fractional Poisson probability distribution function have been invented, developed and encouraged for applications by Nick Laskin (2003) who coined the terms fractional Poisson process, Fractional compound Poisson process and fractional Poisson probability distribution function.[1]
Fundamentals
The fractional Poisson probability distribution captures the long-memory effect which results in the non-exponential waiting time probability distribution function empirically observed in complex classical and quantum systems. Thus, fractional Poisson process and fractional Poisson probability distribution function can be considered as natural generalization of the famous Poisson process and the Poisson probability distribution.
The idea behind the fractional Poisson process was to design counting process with non-exponential waiting time probability distribution. Mathematically the idea was realized by substitution the first-order time derivative in the Kolmogorov–Feller equation for the Poisson probability distribution function with the time derivative of fractional order.[2][3]
The main outcomes are new stochastic non-Markov process – fractional Poisson process and new probability distribution function – fractional Poisson probability distribution function.
Fractional Poisson probability distribution function
The probability distribution function of fractional Poisson process has been found for the first time by Nick Laskin (see, Ref.[1])
where parameter has physical dimension and is the Gamma function.
The gives us the probability that in the time interval we observe n events governed by fractional Poisson stream.
The probability distribution of the fractional Poisson process can be represented in terms of the Mittag-Leffler function in the following compact way (see, Ref.[1]),
It follows from the above equations that when the is transformed into the well known probability distribution function of the Poisson process, ,
where is the rate of arrivals with physical dimension .
Thus, can be considered as fractional generalization of the standard Poisson probability distribution. The presence of additional parameter brings new features in comparison with the standard Poisson distribution.
Mean
The mean of the fractional Poisson process has been found in Ref.[1].
The second order moment
The second order moment of the fractional Poisson process has been found for the first time by Nick Laskin (see, Ref.[1])
Variance
The variance of the fractional Poisson process is (see, Ref.[1])
where is the Beta-function.
Characteristic function
The characteristic function of the fractional Poisson process has been found for the first time in Ref.[1],
or in a series form
with the help of the Mittag-Leffler function series representation.
Then, for the moment of order we have
Generating function
The generating function of the fractional Poisson probability distribution function is defined as (see, Ref.[1]).
The generating function of the fractional Poisson probability distribution was obtained for the first time by Nick Laskin in Ref.[1].
where is the Mittag-Leffler function given by its series representation
Moment generating function
The equation for the moment of any integer order of the fractional Poisson can be easily found by means of the moment generating function which is defined as
For example, for the moment of order we have
The moment generating function is (see, Ref.[1])
or in a series form
with the help of the Mittag-Leffler function series representation.
Waiting time distribution function
A time between two successive arrivals is called as waiting time and it is a random variable. The waiting time probability distribution function is an important attribute of any arrival or counting random process.
Waiting time probability distribution function of the fractional Poisson process is defined as (see, Refs.[1,3])
where is the probability that a given interarrival time is greater or equal to
and is the fractional Poisson probability distribution function.
The waiting time probability distribution function of the fractional Poisson process was found for first time by Nick Laskin in Ref.[1],
here is the generalized two-parameter Mittag-Leffler function
Waiting time probability distribution function has the following asymptotic behavior (see, Ref.[1])
and
Fractional compound Poisson process
Fractional compound Poisson process has been introduced and developed for the first time by Nick Laskin (see, Ref.[1]). The fractional compound Poisson process , is represented by
where , is a fractional Poisson process, and , is a family of independent and identically distributed random variables with probability distribution function for each . The process , and the sequence , are assumed to be independent.
The fractional compound Poisson process is natural generalization of the compound Poisson process.
Applications of fractional Poisson probability distribution
The fractional Poisson probability distribution has physical and mathematical applications. Physical application is in the field of quantum optics. Mathematical applications are in the field of combinatorial numbers (see, Ref.[4]).
Physical application: New coherent states
A new family of quantum coherent states has been introduced as[4]
where is an eigenvector of the photon number operator, complex number stands for labeling the new coherent states,
and is the Mittag-Leffler function.
Then the probability of detecting n photons is:
which is recognized as fractional Poisson probability distribution.
In terms of photon field creation and annihilation operators and that satisfy the canonical commutation relation , the average number of photons in a coherent state can be presented as (see, Ref.[4])
- .
Mathematical applications: New polynomials and numbers
The fractional generalization of Bell polynomials, Bell numbers, Dobinski's formula and Stirling numbers of the second kind have been introduced and developed by Nick Laskin (see, Ref.[4]). The appearance of fractional Bell polynomials is natural if one evaluates the diagonal matrix element of the evolution operator in the basis of newly introduced quantum coherent states. Fractional Stirling numbers of the second kind have been applied to evaluate the skewness and kurtosis of the fractional Poisson probability distribution function. A new representation of the Bernoulli numbers in terms of fractional Stirling numbers of the second kind has been discovered (see, Ref.[4]).
In the limit case μ =1 when the fractional Poisson probability distribution becomes the Poisson probability distribution, all of the above listed applications turn into the well-known results of the quantum optics and the enumerative combinatorics.
Statistical application and inference
The point and interval estimators for the model parameters are developed by Cahoy et. al, (2010) (see, Ref.[5]). [5]
See also
- Poisson process
- Poisson distribution
- Compound Poisson process
- Markov process
- Fractional calculus
- Generating function
- Coherent states
- Canonical commutation relation
- Bell polynomials
- Bell numbers
- Dobinski's formula
- Stirling numbers
- Mittag-Leffler distribution
References
- ↑ N. Laskin, (2003), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S1007-5704(03)00037-6 Fractional Poisson process, Communications in Nonlinear Science and Numerical Simulation, vol. 8 issue 3–4 September–December, 2003. pp. 201–213.
- ↑ A.I. Saichev and G.M. Zaslavsky, (1997), http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.166272 Fractional kinetic equations: solutions and applications, Chaos vol. 7 (1997) pp. 753–764.
- ↑ O. N. Repin and A. I. Saichev, (2000), http://www.springerlink.com/content/r88713p577701148 Fractional Poisson Law, Radiophysics and Quantum Electronics, vol 43, Number 9 (2000), 738-741.
- ↑ N. Laskin, (2009), Some applications of the fractional Poisson probability distribution, J. Math. Phys. 50, 113513 (2009) (12 pages), http://jmp.aip.org/resource/1/jmapaq/v50/i11/p113513_s1?bypassSSO=1. (also available online: http://arxiv.org/abs/0812.1193)
- ↑ D.O. Cahoy V.V. Uchaikin W.A. Woyczyński (2010). Parameter estimation for fractional Poisson processes. Journal of Statistical Planning and Inference. pp. 3106–3120.
Further reading
- L. Beghin and E. Orsingher, (2009), Fractional Poisson Processes and Related Planar Random Motions, Electronic Journal of Probability, Vol. 14 (2009), Paper no. 61, pages 1790–1826.
- M.M. Meerschaert, E. Nane, P. Vellaisamy, (2011), The Fractional Poisson Process and the Inverse Stable Subordinator, Electronic Journal of Probability, Vol. 16 (2011), Paper no. 59, pages 1600–1620.