On the number of cutpoints of the transient nearest neighbor random walk on the line (Q975323)

The authors consider transient nearest neighbor (NN) random walks on the nonnegative integers. The probability of going to the right from state \(i\) \((i\geq 1)\) is taken to be \({1\over 2}+ p_i\geq {1\over 2}\). A point \(R\) is called a cutpoint if the random walk makes exactly one upcrossing from \(R\) to \(R+1\). \(R\) is a strong cutpoint if it is visited exactly once by the NN random walk. The authors give criteria in terms of the \(p_i\)'s for the almost sure finiteness of the (random) sets of cut points and strong cut points, respectively examples, conjectures and open problems are presented as well.