PATH PROPERTIES OF THE LINEAR MULTIFRACTIONAL STABLE MOTION

Abstract

The linear multifractional stable motion (LMSM) processes Y = {Y(t)}t∈ℝ is an α-stable (0 < α < 2) stochastic process, which exhibits local self-similarity, has heavy tails and can have skewed distributions. The process Y is obtained from the well-known class of linear fractional stable motion (LFSM) processes by replacing their self-similarity parameter H by a function of time H(t). We show that the paths of Y(t) are bounded on bounded intervals only if 1/α ≤ H(t) < 1, t ∈ ℝ. In particular, if 0 < α ≤ 1, then Y has everywhere discontinuous paths, with probability one. On the other hand, Y has a version with continuous paths if H(t) is sufficiently regular and 1/α < H(t), t ∈ ℝ. We study the Hölder regularity of the sample paths when these are continuous and establish almost sure bounds on the pointwise and uniform pointwise Hölder exponents of the (random) function Y(t,ω), t ∈ ℝ, in terms of the function H(t) and its corresponding Hölder exponents. The Gaussian multifractional Brownian motion (MBM) processes are LMSM processes when α = 2. We obtain some new results on the Hölder regularity of their paths.