Asymptotic period of an aperiodic Markov chain

We introduce the concept of asymptotic period for an irreducible and aperiodic, discrete-time Markov chain X on a countable state space, and develop the theory leading to its formal definition. The asymptotic period of X equals one - its period - if X is recurrent, but may be larger than one if X is transient; X is asymptotically aperiodic if its asymptotic period equals one. Some sufficient conditions for asymptotic aperiodicity are presented. The asymptotic period of a birth-death process on the nonnegative integers is studied in detail and shown to be equal to 1, 2 or infinity. Criteria for the occurrence of each value in terms of the 1-step transition probabilities are established.