On the distribution of Brownian areas

Abstract

We study the distributions of the areas under the positive parts of a Brownian motion process B and a Brownian bridge process U: with A+ = ∫01B+ (t) dt and A0+ = ∫01U+(t) dt, we use excursion theory to show that the Laplace transforms ψ+(s) = E exp(-sA+) and ψ01(s) = E exp(-sA0+) of A+ and A0+ satisfy ∫0∞e-λsψ+ (√2 s3/2) ds = λ-1/2Ai(λ) + (1/3 - ∫01Ai(t) dt)/√λ Ai(λ) - Ai′(λ) and ∫0∞e-λs/√sψ 0+ (√2 s3/2) ds = 2√π Ai(λ)/√λ Ai(λ) - Ai′(λ), where Ai is Airy's function. At the same time, our approach via excursion theory unifies previous calculations of this type due to Kac, Groeneboom, Louchard, Shepp and Takács for other Brownian areas. Similarly, we use excursion theory to obtain recursion formulas for the moments of the "positive part" areas. We have not yet succeeded in inverting the double Laplace transforms because of the structure of the function appearing in the denominators, namely, √λ Ai(λ) - Ai′(λ).