Convergence of Some Expected First Passage Times

Abstract

We discuss the convergence of the expected times until the partial sums of a sequence of independent, identically distributed random variables with zero means and unit variances first rise a height $h$ above their previous minimum as $h \rightarrow \infty$. We also consider the convergence as $r \rightarrow \infty$ of the expected times until the range of these partial sums exceeds a value $r$. Applications of these results to a quality control procedure and to queueing theory are mentioned.