Light-tailed behavior of stationary distribution for state-dependent random walks on a strip

Abstract: In this paper, we consider the state-dependent reflecting random walk on a half-strip. We provide explicit criteria for (positive) recurrence, and an explicit expression for the stationary distribution. As a consequence, the light-tailed behavior of the stationary distribution is proved under appropriate conditions. The key idea of the method employed here is the decomposition of the trajectory of the random walk and the main tool is the intrinsic branching structure buried in the random walk on a strip, which is different from the matrix-analytic method.