Random walks in the quarter-plane with zero drift: an explicit criterion for the finiteness of the associated group (Q2906177)

In many studies, it appears that the question of the associated Galois group \(W\) of the random walks in the quarter-plane can be very useful. In the literature, there exist very few criteria to decide whether the group \(W\) is finite. The subject of this paper is to give an explicit criterion for \(W\) to be finite. To make the work more explicit, some important results proved in [\textit{G. Fayolle, R. Iasnogorodski} and \textit{V. Malyshev}, Random walks in the quarter-plane. Algebraic methods, boundary value problems and applications. Berlin: Springer (1999; Zbl 0932.60002)] are recalled. The main result result of this paper is presented in the first section and the proof is done in stages, the key idea being to consider the genus \(0\) case as a continuous limit of the genus \(1\) case, or to view genus \(0\) as a topological deformation of genus \(1\). For the sake of completeness, miscellaneous remarks are presented in the fourth section of the paper, and another simpler proof of the obtained criterion is given.