Local Coupling Property for Markov Processes with Applications to Lévy Processes

Abstract

In this article, we define the new concept of local coupling property for Markov processes and study its relationship with distributional properties of the transition probability. In the special case of Lévy processes we show that this property is equivalent to the absolute continuity of the transition probability and also provide a sufficient condition for it in terms of the Lévy measure. Our result is stronger than existing results for absolute continuity of Lévy distributions.