On the arc-sine laws for Lévy processes

Abstract

Let X be a Lévy process on the real line, and let Fc denote the generalized arcsine law on [0, 1] with parameter c. Then t −1 ⨍0 t P 0(X s > 0) ds → c as t → ∞ is a necessary and sufficient condition for t —1 ⨍0 t 1{Xs >0} ds to converge in P 0 law to Fc. Moreover, P 0(Xt > 0) = c for all t > 0 is a necessary and sufficient condition for t —1 ⨍0 t 1{Xs >0} ds under P 0 to have law Fc for all t > 0. We give an elementary proof of these results, and show how to derive Spitzer's theorem for random walks in a simple way from the Lévy process version.