Rotational Brownian motion (astronomy) of supermassive black holes appear to be randomly aligned with respect to their host galaxies. Rotational Brownian motion (astronomy) In astronomy, rotational Brownian motion is the random walk in orientation of a binary star's orbital plane, induced by gravitational perturbations from passing stars. Consider a binary that consists of two massive objects (stars, black holes etc.) and that is embedded in a stellar system containing a large number of stars. Let formula_1 and formula_2 be the masses of the two components of the binary whose total mass is formula_3. A field star that approaches the binary with impact parameter formula_4
Brownian excursion Brownian excursion process, formula_1, is a Wiener process (or Brownian motion) conditioned to be positive and to take the value 0 at time 1. Alternatively, it is a Brownian bridge process conditioned to be positive. Another representation of a Brownian excursion formula_1 in terms of a Brownian motion process "W" (due to Paul Lévy and noted by Kiyoshi Itō and Henry P. McKean, Jr.) is in terms of the last time formula_3 that "W" hits zero before time 1 and the first time formula_4 that Brownian motion formula_5 hits zero after time 1: Let formula_7 be the time that a