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Exam June 2022, Task 3 part iii

Exam June 2022, Task 3 part iii

av Martin Björklund -
Antal svar: 2

Hello,

How did you derive the balance equations in part iii of task 3? We are having trouble understanding why the first equation does not include a gamma on the LHS, since she goes shop after a random amount of time with rate gamma. Could you explain how you derive each of the equations?

Question and suggested solution displayed below.

 

Som svar till Martin Björklund

Re: Exam June 2022, Task 3 part iii

av Sheila Farrahi -
I think the reason that first equation doesn't include gamma is that if she comes from state (R,0) to (S,0), she doesn't stay in the shop. as there is no customer she is back in the restaurant
Som svar till Sheila Farrahi

Sv: Re: Exam June 2022, Task 3 part iii

av Matteo Sfragara -
Hi Martin,

Sheila is right! Note that there is no such a state as (S,0), because as soon as there are 0 customers in the shop, then Greta goes immediately to the restaurant. If we are in state (R,0) and we do an exponential jump with rate \gamma, Greta goes to the shop, sees 0 customers and immediately returns to the restaurant in state (R,0), so the Markov chain does not actually leave that state.

The remaining balance equations are derived in the usual way: you look at each state and write
"rate of jumping out" x "probability of being in that state" = sum of ("rate of jumping in" x "probability of being in the state from where I jump in").
The jumping rates are described in the lines above the balance equations.

Let me know if it's not clear :)

Matteo