Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 April 2009
We extend the results obtained by Hines and Thompson for a Markov chain which has a single reflecting barrier at the origin, nearest neighbour transitions and which moves from {j} to {j + l} with probability j/(j + 1). Martingale limit theorems are used to work out an asymptotic theory for a general class of such chains for which the probability above has the form l – λ(j) = O>λ(j)>1 (j ∈N),λ(j)→ O (j →∞)and Σλ(j)=∞ We discuss the case where the last sum is finite and some alternative versions of the general case.