Wiener-Hopf factorization for time-inhomogeneous Markov chains and its application

Abstract

In this paper we derive the Wiener-Hopf factorization for a finite-state time-inhomogeneous Markov chain. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first attempt to investigate the Wiener-Hopf factorization for time-inhomogeneous Markov chains. In this work we only deal with a special class of time-inhomogeneous Markovian generators, namely piece-wise constant, which allows to use an appropriately tailored randomization technique. Besides the mathematical importance of the Wiener-Hopf factorization methodology, there is also an important computational aspect: it allows for efficient computation of important functionals of Markov chains.