Bunching in a semi-Markov process

Abstract

In the type II counter with constant deadtime, particles which arrive within some constant time τ following another particle are unrecorded. We can think of this process as an alternating sequence of gaps and bunches of events. Gaps have duration > τ, while the intervals between any successive pair of events within a bunch are all ≦ τ. Counter theory is usually concerned with the distribution of intervals between recorded events (i.e., the first event of each bunch) and the distribution of the number of recorded events in a given time interval. In the case where the events form a renewal process this has been studied intensively by Pyke [2], Smith [5] and Takács [6].