Rotational Brownian motion (astronomy) that the rotation axis of the binary is oriented at angle θ at time "t". The evolution equation for "F" is formula_17 If <Δξ>, "a", ρ and σ are constant in time, this becomes formula_18 where μ = cos θ and τ is the time in units of the relaxation time "t", where formula_19 The solution to this equation states that the expectation value of μ decays with time as formula_20 Hence, "t" is the time constant for the binary's orientation to be randomized by torques from field stars. Rotational Brownian motion was first discussed in the context of binary
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