On the exit time from open sets of some semi-markov processes

In this paper we characterize the distribution of the first exit time from an arbitrary open set for a class of semi-Markov processes obtained as timechanged Markov processes.We estimate the asymptotic behaviour of the survival function (for large t ) and of the distribution function (for small t) and we provide some conditions for absolute continuity. We have been inspired by a problem of neurophyshiology and our results are particularly usefull in this field, precisely for the so-called Leaky Integrate-and-Fire (LIF) models: The use of semi-Markov processes in these models appear to be realistic under several aspects, for example, it makes the intertimes between spikes a r.v. with infinite expectation, which is a desiderable property. Hence, after the theoretical part, we provide a LIF model based on semi-Markov processes.