This volume consists of about half of the papers presented during a
three-day seminar on stochastic processes held at Northwestern
University in March 1982. This was the second of such yearly seminars
aimed at bringing together a small group of researchers to discuss their
current work in an informal atmosphere. The invited participants in this
year's seminar were B. ATKINSON, R. BASS, K. BICHTELER, D. BURKHOLDER,
K.L. CHUNG, J.L. DOOB, C. DOLEANS-DADE, H. FOLLMER, R.K. GETOOR, J.
GLOVER, J. MITRO, D. MONRAD, E. PERKINS, J. PITMAN, Z. POP-STOJANOVIC,
M.J. SHARPE, and J. WALSH. We thank them and the other participants for
the lively atmosphere of the seminar. As mentioned above, the present
volume is only a fragment of the work discussed at the seminar, the
other work having been committed to other publications. The seminar was
made possible through the enlightened support of the Air Force Office of
Scientific Research, Grant No. 80-0252A. We are grateful to them as well
as the publisher, Birkhauser, Boston, for their support and
encouragement. E.C., Evanston, 1983 Seminar on stochastic Processes,
1982 Birkhauser, Boston, 1983 GERM FIELDS AND A CONVERSE TO THE STRONG
MARKOV PROPERTY by BRUCE W. ATKINSON 1. Introduction The purpose of this
paper is to give an intrinsic characterization of optional (i.e.,
stopping) times for the general germ Markov process, which includes the
general right process as a special case. We proceed from the general to
the specific.