As far as I know, there are three definitions of Markov processes (or of Markov chains).
DEFINITION 1 (WEAKER). A process $(X_t)_{t\in[0,\infty)}$ on $(\Omega,\mathcal{F},\mathbb{P})$ with values in an arbitrary measurable space $(E,\mathcal{E})$ is a Markov process iff, for all $s,t\geq 0$, $X_{t+s}|\mathcal{F}^X_t\sim X_{t+s}|X_t$, where $\mathcal{F}^X_t:=\sigma\{X_s\,|\, s\in[0,t]\}$.
DEFINITION 2 (STRONGER). A process $(X_t)_{t\in[0,\infty)}$ on $(\Omega,\mathcal{F},\mathbb{P})$ with values in an arbitrary measurable space $(E,\mathcal{E})$ is a Markov process iff it satisfies Definition 1 and there exists a family $\{P_{t,t+s}|s,t\geq 0\}$ of probability transition kernels $P_{t,t+s}:E\times \mathcal{E}\to [0,1]$ such that, for all $s,t\geq 0$, $P_{t,t+s}$ is a regular version of $X_{t+s}|X_t$ (meaning that for all $A\in \mathcal{E}$ it holds that $\mathbb{E}(1_A(X_{t+s})|X_t)=P_{t,t+s}(A,X_t)$ $\mathbb{P}$-a.e.).
DEFINITION 3 (EVEN STRONGER). Same as Definition 2 but adding the requirement that $P_{t,t}=I$ for all $t\geq 0$ (where $I(x,dy)=\delta_x(dy)$) and that the $P_{t,t+s}$ satisfy the Chapman-Kolmogorov equation, that is $P_{t+s,t+s+r}\circ P_{t,t+s}=P_{t,t+s+r}$ for all $t,s,r\geq 0$ (where, if $P$ and $K$ are kernels on $E\times \mathcal{E}$, $P\circ K$ is defined for $(x,A)\in E\times\mathcal{E}$ as $(P\circ K)(x,A)=\int_E P(y,A)K(x,dy)$).
I have 3 questions:
- Can anyone provide an example of a process that satisfies Definition 1 but not Definition 2? I am aware that such a process should be valued in some non-Borel-standard space $E$, so I imagine it might be difficult to construct. SOLVED: see Cinlar's Probability and Stochastic, page 446, Remark 11.1 for a counterexample of a process which is Markov but doesn't have a transition kernel.
- Similarly, can someone provide an example of a process that satisfies Definition 2 but does not satisfy Definition 3 for any transition kernels (possibly different from the ones that satisfy Definition 2)? I suspect such a counterexample to exist but I am not sure.
- (IMO THE MOST INTERESTING ONE) If a process satisfies Definition 1 and the space $(E,\mathcal{E})$ is Borel-standard, is Definition 3 automatically satisfied? (We know that Definition 2 is, by the existence of regular versions of conditional expectations). SOME PROGRESS: For a Markov Chain the answer is positive since one can just start from $P_{0,1}$,$P_{1,2}$,... and define $P_{i,j}:=P_{i,i+1}\circ...\circ P_{j-1,j}$.
Some very closely related (unanswered) questions on math.stackexchange are this one and this other one.