First passage times of L\'evy processes over a one-sided moving boundary

Abstract

We study the asymptotic behaviour of the tail of the distribution of the first passage time of a L\'evy process over a one-sided moving boundary. Our main result states that if the boundary behaves as $t^{\gamma}$ for large $t$ for some $\gamma<1/2$ then the probability that the process stays below the boundary behaves asymptotically as in the case of a constant boundary. We do not have to assume Spitzer's condition in contrast to all previously known results. Both positive ($+t^\gamma$) and negative ($-t^\gamma$) boundaries are considered. These results extend the findings of Greenwood and Novikov (1986) and are also motivated by results in the case of Brownian motion, for which the above result was proved in Uchiyama (1980).