Reverting Processes

Abstract

We consider random processes that are history-dependent, in the sense that the distribution of the next step of the process at any time depends upon the entire past history of the process. In general, therefore, the Markov property cannot hold, but it is shown that a suitable sub-class of such processes can be seen as directed Markov processes, subordinate to a random non-Markov directing process whose properties we explore in detail. This enables us to describe the behaviour of the subordinated process of interest. Some examples, including reverting random walks and a reverting branching process, are given.