Moments of escape times of random walk (Q1961746)

Let \((M_n)_{n>0}\) be a symmetric simple random walk on the integers, and let \( \tau _{L,N}\) be the time of escape from the interval \((-N,L)\). Although the generating function of this random variable is known, the moments are not easily attainable. The authors extend an idea of \textit{F. Spitzer} [``Principles of random walk'' (1964; Zbl 0119.34304)] to prove that all moments depend polynomially on \(L\) and \(N\).