This paper uses two new ingredients, namely stochastic differential equations satisfied by continuous-state branching processes (CSBPs), and a topology under which the Lamperti transformation is continuous, in order to provide self-contained proofs of Lamperti's 1967 representation of CSBPs in terms of spectrally positive Lévy processes. The first proof is a direct probabilistic proof, and the second one uses approximations by discrete processes, for which the Lamperti representation is evident.
Lamperti's maximal branching process is revisited, with emphasis on the description of the shape of the invariant measures in both the recurrent and transient regimes. A truncated version of this chain is exhibited, preserving the monotonicity of the original Lamperti chain supported by the integers. The Brown theory of hitting times applies to the latter chain with finite state-space, including sharp strong time to stationarity. Additional information on these hitting time problems are drawn from the quasi-stationary point of view.
Guided by the relationship between the breadth-first walk of a rooted tree and its sequence of generation sizes, we are able to include immigration in the Lamperti representation of continuous-state branching processes. We provide a representation of continuous-state branching processes with immigration by solving a random ordinary differential equation driven by a pair of independent Levy processes. Stability of the solutions is studied and gives, in particular, limit theorems (of a type previously studied by Grimvall, Kawazu and Watanabe and by Li) and a simulation scheme for continuous-stat…
We obtain a bijection between some set of multidimensional sequences and this of $d$-type plane forests which is based on the breadth first search algorithm. This coding sequence is related to the sequence of population sizes indexed by the generations, through a Lamperti type transformation. The same transformation in then obtained in continuous time for multitype branching processes with discrete values. We show that any such process can be obtained from a $d^2$ dimensional compound Poisson process time changed by some integral functional. Our proof bears on the discretisation of branching f…
In this paper, for $α\in (1, 2}$ we show that the $α$-stable continuous-state branching process and the associated process conditioned never to become extinct are positive self-similar Markov processes. Understanding the interaction of the Lamperti transformation for continuous-state branching processes and the Lamperti transformation for positive self-similar Markov processes permits accessto a number of explicit results concerning the paths of stable-continuous branching processes and its conditioned version.
Motivated by the stochastic Lotka-Volterra model, we introduce discrete-state interacting multitype branching processes. We show that they can be obtained as the sum of a multidimensional random walk with a Lamperti-type change proportional to the population size; and a multidimensional Poisson process with a time-change proportional to the pairwise interactions. We define the analogous continuous-state process as the unique strong solution of a multidimensional SDE. We prove that the scaling limits of the discrete-state process correspond to its continuous counterpart. In addition, we show th…
We construct a modified continuous-state branching process whose Malthusian parameter is replaced by another when passing below a certain level. The construction is obtained via a Lamperti-like transform applied to a refracted Lévy process. Infinitesimal generator, probability of vanishing at infinity, of explosion and some path properties are also provided.
We present a new approach to positive self-similar Markov processes (pssMps) by reformulating Lamperti's transformation via jump type SDEs. As applications, we give direct constructions of pssMps (re)started continuously at zero if the Lamperti transformed Levy process is spectrally negative. Our paper can be seen as a continuation of similar studies for continuous state branching processes but the approach seems to be more fruitful in the context of pssMps.
These notes were used in a short graduate course on branching processes the author gave in Beijing Normal University. The following main topics are covered: scaling limits of Galton--Watson processes, continuous-state branching processes, extinction probabilities, conditional limit theorems, decompositions of sample paths, martingale problems, stochastic equations, Lamperti's transformations, independent and dependent immigration processes. Some of the results are simplified versions of those in the author's book "Measure-valued branching Markov processes" (Springer, 2011). We hope these simpl…
By killing a stable Lévy process when it leaves the positive half-line, or by conditioning it to stay positive, or by conditioning it to hit 0 continuously, we obtain three different positive self-similar Markov processes which illustrate the three classes described by Lamperti \cite{La}. For each of these processes, we compute explicitly the infinitesimal generator from which we deduce the characteristics of the underlying Lévy process in the Lamperti representation. The proof of this result bears on the behaviour at time 0 of stable Lévy processes before their first passage time across level…
In this paper, we consider a class of generalized continuous-state branching processes obtained by Lamperti type time changes of spectrally positive Lévy processes using different rate functions. When explosion occurs to such a process, we show that the process converges to infinity in finite time asymptotically along a deterministic curve, and identify the speed of explosion for rate function in different regimes. To prove the main theorems, we also establish a new asymptotic result for scale function of spectrally positive Lévy process.
Motivated by various applications, we describe the scaling limits of bivariate Markov chains $(X,J)$ on $\mathbb Z_+ \times \{1,\ldots,κ\}$ where $X$ can be viewed as a position marginal and $\{1,\ldots,κ\}$ is a set of $κ$ types. The chain starts from an initial value $(n,i)\in \mathbb Z_+ \times \{1,\ldots,κ\}$, with $i$ fixed and $n \rightarrow \infty$, and typically we will assume that the macroscopic jumps of the marginal $X$ are rare, i.e. arrive with a probability proportional to a negative power of the current state. We also assume that $X$ is non-increasing. We then observe different …
A multitype continuous-state branching process (MCSBP) ${\rm Z}=({\rm Z}_{t})_{t\geq 0}$, is a Markov process with values in $[0,\infty)^{d}$ that satisfies the branching property. Its distribution is characterised by its branching mechanism, that is the data of $d$ Laplace exponents of $\mathbb{R}^d$-valued spectrally positive Lévy processes, each one having $d-1$ increasing components. We give an expression of the probability for a MCSBP to tend to 0 at infinity in term of its branching mechanism. Then we prove that this extinction holds at a finite time if and only if some condition bearing…
This paper explores various distributional aspects of random variables defined as the ratio of two independent positive random variables where one variable has an $α$-stable law, for $0<α<1$, and the other variable has the law defined by polynomially tilting the density of an $α$-stable random variable by a factor $θ>-α$. When $θ=0$, these variables equate with the ratio investigated by Lamperti [Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 88 (1958) 380--387] which, remarkably, was shown to have a simple density. This variable arises in a variety of areas and gains importance from a close connection to the stable…
We study the convergence of the $M/G/1$ processor-sharing, queue length process in the heavy traffic regime, in the finite variance case. To do so, we combine results pertaining to Lévy processes, branching processes and queuing theory. These results yield the convergence of long excursions of the queue length processes, toward excursions obtained from those of some reflected Brownian motion with drift, after taking the image of their local time process by the Lamperti transformation. We also show, via excursion theoretic arguments, that this entails the convergence of the entire processes to …
In this paper, we study the extinction time of logistic branching processes which are perturbed by an independent random environment driven by a Brownian motion. Our arguments use a Lamperti-type representation which is interesting on its own right and provides a one to one correspondence between the latter family of processes and the family of Feller diffusions which are perturbed by an independent spectrally positive Lévy process. When the independent random perturbation (of the Feller diffusion) is driven by a subordinator then the logistic branching processes in a Brownian environment conv…
Around the 1960s a celebrated collection of papers emerged offering a number of explicit identities for the class of isotropic stable processes in one and higher dimensions; these include, for example, the lauded works of Blumenthal, Getoor, Ray, Port and Rogozin. Amongst other things, these results nicely exemplify the use of standard Riesz potential theory on the unit open ball $\mathbb{B}_d :=\{ x\in \mathbb{R}^d :|x|<1\}$, $\mathbb{R}^d\backslash\mathbb{B}_d$ and $\mathbb{S}_d :=\partial \mathbb{B}_d$ with the, then, modern theory of potential analysis for Markov processes. Following initi…
Understanding the space-time features of how a Lévy process crosses a constant barrier for the first time, and indeed the last time, is a problem which is central to many models in applied probability such as queueing theory, financial and actuarial mathematics, optimal stopping problems, the theory of branching processes to name but a few. In \cite{KD} a new quintuple law was established for a general Lévy process at first passage below a fixed level. In this article we use the quintuple law to establish a family of related joint laws, which we call $n$-tuple laws, for Lévy processes, Lévy pr…
We write $R_n$ for the minimal position attained after time $n$ by a branching random walk in the boundary case. In this article, we prove that $R_n - \frac{1}{2} \log n$ converges in law toward a shifted Gumbel distribution.
Using the foundations laid down in Hardy and Harris (2006) ["A new formulation of the spine approach in branching diffusions", arXiv:math.PR/0611054], we present new spine proofs of the L^p-convergence p>=1) of some key `additive' martingales for three distinct models of branching diffusions, including new results for a multi-type branching Brownian motion and discussion of left-most particle speeds. The spine techniques we develop give clear and simple arguments in the spirit of the conceptual spine proofs found in Kyprianou (2004) ["Travelling wave solutions to the KPP equation, Ann. Inst. H…
Consider the boundary case in a one-dimensional super-critical branching random walk. It is known that upon the survival of the system, the minimal position after $n$ steps behaves in probability like ${3\over 2} \log n$ when $n\to \infty$. We give a simple and self-contained proof of this result, based exclusively on elementary properties of sums of i.i.d. real-valued random variables.
We introduce a set of tools which simplify and streamline the proofs of limit theorems concerning near-critical particles in branching random walks under optimal assumptions. We exemplify our method by giving another proof of the Seneta-Heyde norming for the critical additive martingale, initially due to Aïdékon and Shi. The method involves in particular the replacement of certain second moment estimates by truncated first moment bounds, and the replacement of ballot-type theorems for random walks by estimates coming from an explicit expression for the potential kernel of random walks killed b…
We present a formalization of the spine change of measure approach for branching diffusions that improves on the scheme laid out for branching Brownian motion in Kyprianou (2004) ["Travelling wave solutions to the KPP equation, Ann. Inst. H. Poincare Probab. Statist. 40, no.1, pp53-72] which itself made use of earlier works of Lyons et al (1997) ["A conceptual proof of the Kesten-Stigum theorem for multi-type branching processes", Classical and modern branching processes, IMA Vol. Math. Appl., vol.84, Springer, New York, pp181-185]. We use our new formulation to interpret certain `Gibbs-Boltzm…
We provide a probabilistic proof of a well known connection between a special case of the Allen-Cahn equation and mean curvature flow. We then prove a corresponding result for scaling limits of the spatial $Λ$-Fleming-Viot process with selection, in which the selection mechanism is chosen to model what are known in population genetics as hybrid zones. Our proofs will exploit a duality with a system of branching (and coalescing) random walkers which is of some interest in its own right.
In several examples, dualities for interacting diffusion and particle systems permit the study of the longtime behavior of solutions. A particularly difficult model in which many techniques collapse is a two-type model with mutually catalytic interaction introduced by Dawson/Perkins for which they proved under some assumptions a dichotomy between extinction and coexistence directly from the defining equations. In the present article we show how to prove a precise dichotomy for a related model with negatively correlated noises. The proof uses moment bounds on exit-times of correlated Brownian m…
In the first part of this paper we give easy and intuitive proofs for the small value probabilities of the martingale limit of a supercritical Galton-Watson process in both the Schröder and the Böttcher case. These results are well-known, but the most cited proofs rely on generating function arguments which are hard to transfer to other settings. In the second part we show that the strategy underlying our proofs can be used in the quite different context of self-intersections of stochastic processes. Solving a problem posed by Wenbo Li, we find the small value probabilities for intersection lo…
We give a new proof for a Ray-Knight representation of Feller's branching diffusion with logistic growth in terms of the local times of a reflected Brownian motion $H$ with a drift that is affine linear in the local time accumulated by $H$ at its current level. In \cite{LPW}, such a representation was obtained by an approximation through Harris paths that code the genealogies of particle systems. The present proof is purely in terms of stochastic analysis, and is inspired by previous work of Norris, Rogers and Williams \cite{NRW}.
In this work, we characterize cluster-invariant point processes for critical branching spatial processes on R d for all large enough d when the motion law is $α$-stable or has a finite discrete range. More precisely, when the motion is $α$-stable with $α$ $\le$ 2 and the offspring law $μ$ of the branching process has an heavy tail such that $μ$(k) $\sim$ k --2--$β$ , then we need the dimension d to be strictly larger than the critical dimension $α$/$β$. In particular, when the motion is Brownian and the offspring law $μ$ has a second moment, this critical dimension is 2. Contrary to the previo…
We obtain the asymptotics for the speed of a particular case of a particle system with branching and selection introduced by Bérard and Gouéré (2010). The proof is based on a connection with a supercritical Galton-Watson process censored at a certain level.
We consider one-dimensional branching Brownian motion in which particles are absorbed at the origin. We assume that when a particle branches, the offspring distribution is supercritical, but the particles are given a critical drift towards the origin so that the process eventually goes extinct with probability one. We establish precise asymptotics for the probability that the process survives for a large time t, building on previous results by Kesten (1978) and Berestycki, Berestycki, and Schweinsberg (2014). We also prove a Yaglom-type limit theorem for the behavior of the process conditioned…
We give an alternative proof of a result by N. Gantert, Y. Hu and Z. Shi on the asymptotic behavior of the survival probability of the branching random walk killed below a linear boundary, in the special case of deterministic binary branching and bounded random walk steps. Connections with the Brunet-Derrida theory of stochastic fronts are discussed.
We consider multitype branching processes arising in the study of random laminations of the disk. We classify these processes according to their subcritical or supercritical behavior and provide Kolmogorov-type estimates in the critical case corresponding to the random recursive lamination process of [1]. The proofs use the infinite dimensional Perron-Frobenius theory and quasi-stationary distributions.
We give a concise self-contained presentation of known and new limit theorems for the one-type Markov branching processes with continuous time. The new streamlined proofs are based on what we call, the tail generating function approach. Our analysis focuses on the singularity points of the master integral equation for the probability generating functions of the current population size.
We demonstrate a novel strong law of large numbers for branching processes, with a simple proof via measure-theoretic manipulations and spine theory. Roughly speaking, any sequence of events that eventually occurs almost surely for the spine entails the almost sure convergence of a certain sum over particles in the population.
For a positive continuous function f satisfying some standard conditions, we study the f-moments of continuous-state branching processes with or without immigration. The main results give criteria for the existence of the f-moments. The characterization of the processes in terms of stochastic equations given by Dawson and Li (2012) plays an essential role in the proofs.
We consider a class of branching-selection particle systems on $\R$ similar to the one considered by E. Brunet and B. Derrida in their 1997 paper "Shift in the velocity of a front due to a cutoff". Based on numerical simulations and heuristic arguments, Brunet and Derrida showed that, as the population size $N$ of the particle system goes to infinity, the asymptotic velocity of the system converges to a limiting value at the unexpectedly slow rate $(\log N)^{-2}$. In this paper, we give a rigorous mathematical proof of this fact, for the class of particle systems we consider. The proof makes u…
The Kesten-Stigum Theorem is a fundamental criterion for the rate of growth of a supercritical branching process, showing that an L log L condition is decisive. In critical and subcritical cases, results of Kolmogorov and later authors give the rate of decay of the probability that the process survives at least n generations. We give conceptual proofs of these theorems based on comparisons of Galton-Watson measure to another measure on the space of trees. This approach also explains Yaglom's exponential limit law for conditioned critical branching processes via a simple characterization of the…
A new formulation of non-local branching superprocesses is given from which we derive as special cases the rebirth, the multitype, the mass-structured, the multilevel and the age-reproduction-structured superprocesses and the superprocess-controlled immigration process. This unified treatment simplifies considerably the proof of existence of the old classes of superprocesses and also gives rise to some new ones.
We give a proof of a result on the growth of the number of particles along chosen paths in a branching Brownian motion. The work follows the approach of classical large deviations results, in which paths in $C[0,1]$ are rescaled onto $C[0,T]$ for large $T$. The methods used are probabilistic and take advantage of modern spine techniques.
We give short proofs of two classical results about the position of the extremal particle in a branching Brownian motion, one concerning the median position and another the almost sure behaviour.
We give an explicit formula for the most likely path to extinction for the Galton-Watson processes with large initial population. We establish this result with the help of the large deviation principle (LDP) which also recovers the asymptotics of extinction probability. Due to the nonnegativity of the Galton-Watson processes, the proof of LDP verification at the point of extinction uses a nonstandard argument of independent interest.
Since the seminal work of Dawson and Perkins, mutually catalytic versions of super-processes have been studied frequently. In this article we combine two approaches extending their ideas: the approach of adding correlations to the driving noise of the system is combined with the approach of obtaining new processes by letting the branching rate tend to infinity. We introduce infinite rate symbiotic branching processes which surprisingly can be interpreted as generalized voter processes with additional strength of opinions. Since many of the arguments go along the lines of known proofs this arti…
In this article we provide a sufficient condition for a continuous-state branching process with immigration (CBI process) to not hit its boundary, i.e. for non-extinction. Our result applies to arbitrary dimension $d \geq 1$ and is formulated in terms of an integrability condition for its immigration and branching mechanisms $F$ and $R$. The proof is based on a suitable comparison with one-dimensional CBI processes and an existing result for one-dimensional CBI processes. The same technique is also used to provide a sufficient condition for transience of multi-type CBI processes.
We consider excited random walks on the integers with a bounded number of i.i.d. cookies per site which may induce drifts both to the left and to the right. We extend the criteria for recurrence and transience by M. Zerner and for positivity of speed by A.-L. Basdevant and A. Singh to this case and also prove an annealed central limit theorem. The proofs are based on results from the literature concerning branching processes with migration and make use of a certain renewal structure.
A critical branching process $\left\{ Z_{k},k=0,1,2,...\right\} $ in a random environment is considered. A conditional functional limit theorem for the properly scaled process $\left\{ \log Z_{pu},0\leq u<\infty \right\} $ is established under the assumptions $Z_{n}>0$ and $p\ll n$. It is shown that the limiting process is a Levy process conditioned to stay nonnegative. The proof of this result is based on a limit theorem describing the distribution of the initial part of the trajectories of a driftless random walk conditioned to stay nonnegative.
We prove the convergence of the extremal processes for variable speed branching Brownian motions where the "speed functions", that describe the time-inhomogeneous variance, lie strictly below their concave hull and satisfy a certain weak regularity condition. These limiting objects are universal in the sense that they only depend on the slope of the speed function at $0$ and the final time $t$. The proof is based on previous results for two-speed BBM obtained in a recent paper of ours and uses Gaussian comparison arguments to extend these to the general case.
We consider a branching random walk for which the maximum position of a particle in the n'th generation, M_n, has zero speed on the linear scale: M_n/n --> 0 as n --> infinity. We further remove ("kill") any particle whose displacement is negative, together with its entire descendence. The size $Z$ of the set of un-killed particles is almost surely finite. In this paper, we confirm a conjecture of Aldous that Exp[Z] < infinity while Exp[Z log Z]=infinity. The proofs rely on precise large deviations estimates and ballot theorem-style results for the sample paths of random walks.
For a quadratic Markov branching process (QMBP), we show that the decay parameter is equal to the first eigenvalue of a Sturm-Liouville operator associated with the PDE that the generating function of the transition probability satisfies. The proof is based on the spectral properties of the Sturm-Liouville operator. Both the upper and lower bounds of the decay parameter are given explicitly by means of a version of Hardy inequality. Two examples are provided to illustrate our results. The important quantity, the Hardy index, which is closely linked with the decay parameter of QMBP, is deeply i…
We construct and describe the extremal process for variable speed branching Brownian motion, studied recently by Fang and Zeitouni, for the case of piecewise constant speeds; in fact for simplicity we concentrate on the case when the speed is $σ_1$ for $s\leq bt$ and $σ_2$ when $bt\leq s\leq t$. In the case $σ_1>σ_2$, the process is the concatenation of two BBM extremal processes, as expected. In the case $σ_1<σ_2$, a new family of cluster point processes arises, that are similar, but distinctively different from the BBM process. Our proofs follow the strategy of Arguin, Bovier, and Kistler.
We consider a model of random tree growth, where at each time unit a new vertex is added and attached to an already existing vertex chosen at random. The probability with which a vertex with degree $k$ is chosen is proportional to $w(k)$, where the weight function $w$ is the parameter of the model. In the papers of B. Bollobas, O. Riordan, J. Spencer, G. Tusnady, and, independently, Mori, the asymptotic degree distribution is obtained for a model that is equivalent to the special case of ours, when the weight function is linear. The proof therein strongly relies on the linear choice of $w$. We…
We provide sufficient conditions for polynomial rate of convergence in the weak law of large numbers for supercritical general indecomposable multi-type branching processes. The main result is derived by investigating the embedded single-type process composed of all individuals having the same type as the ancestor. As an important intermediate step, we determine the (exact) polynomial rate of convergence of Nerman's martingale in continuous time to its limit. The techniques used also allow us to give streamlined proofs of the weak and strong laws of large numbers and ratio convergence for the …
