Fix $p>1$, not necessarily integer, with $p(d-2)<d$. We study the $p$-fold self-intersection local time of a simple random walk on the lattice $\Z^d$ up to time $t$. This is the $p$-norm of the vector of the walker's local times, $\ell_t$. We derive precise logarithmic asymptotics of the expectation of $\exp\{θ_t \|\ell_t\|_p\}$ for scales $θ_t>0$ that are bounded from above, possibly tending to zero. The speed is identified in terms of mixed powers of $t$ and $θ_t$, and the precise rate is characterized in terms of a variational formula, which is in close connection to the {\it Gagliardo-Nirenberg inequality}. As a corollary, we obtain a large-deviation principle for $\|\ell_t\|_p/(t r_t)$ for deviation functions $r_t$ satisfying $t r_t\gg\E[\|\ell_t\|_p]$. Informally, it turns out that the random walk homogeneously squeezes in a $t$-dependent box with diameter of order $\ll t^{1/d}$ to produce the required amount of self-intersections. Our main tool is an upper bound for the joint density of the local times of the walk.
We consider the subcritical contact branching random walk on Zd in continuous time with the arbitrary number of offspring and with immigration. We prove the existence of the steady state (statistical equilibrium).
Subcritical catalytic branching random walk on d-dimensional lattice is studied. New theorems concerning the asymptotic behavior of distributions of local particles numbers are established. To prove the results different approaches are used including the connection between fractional moments of random variables and fractional derivatives of their Laplace transforms. In the previous papers on this subject only supercritical and critical regimes were investigated assuming finiteness of the first moment of offspring number and finiteness of the variance of offspring number, respectively. In the p…
Let $\{Z_n\}_{n\geq 0 }$ be a critical or subcritical $d$-dimensional branching random walk started from a Poisson random measure whose intensity measure is the Lebesugue measure on $\mathbb{R}^d$. Denote by $R_n:=\sup\{u>0:Z_n(\{x\in\mathbb{R}^d:|x|<u\})=0\}$ the radius of the largest empty ball centered at the origin of $Z_n$. In this work, we prove that after suitable renormalization, $R_n$ converges in law to some non-degenerate distribution as $n\to\infty$. Furthermore, our work shows that the renormalization scales depend on the offspring law and the dimension of the branching random wal…
Let $(X_t, t \geq 0)$ be an $α$-stable random walk with values in $\Z^d$. Let $l_t(x) = \int_0^t δ_x(X_s) ds$ be its local time. For $p>1$, not necessarily integer, $I_t = \sum_x l_t^p(x)$ is the so-called $p$-fold self- intersection local time of the random walk. When $p(d -α) < d$, we derive precise logarithmic asymptotics of the probability $P(I_t \geq r_t)$ for all scales $r_t \gg \E(I_t)$. Our result extends previous works by Chen, Li and Rosen 2005, Becker and König 2010, and Laurent 2012.
Let $(X_t,t\geq 0)$ be a random walk on $\mathbb{Z}^d$. Let $ l_t(x)= \int_0^t δ_x(X_s)ds$ be the local time at site $x$ and $ I_t= \sum\limits_{x\in\mathbb{Z}^d} l_t(x)^p $ the p-fold self-intersection local time (SILT). Becker and König have recently proved a large deviations principle for $I_t$ for all $(p,d)\in\mathbb{R}^d\times\mathbb{Z}^d$ such that $p(d-2)<2$. We extend these results to a broader scale of deviations and to the whole subcritical domain $p(d-2)<d$. Moreover we unify the proofs of the large deviations principle using a method introduced by Castell for the critical case $p(…
We study the distribution of the maximal displacement of particles positions for the whole time of the population existence in the model of critical and subcritical catalytic branching random walk on Z. In particular, we prove that in the case of simple symmetric random walk on Z, the distribution of the maximal displacement has "a heavy tail" decreasing as a function of the power 1/2 or 1, when the branching process is critical or subcritical, respectively. These statements describe new effects which do not arise in the corresponding investigations of the maximal displacement of critical and …
We consider a discrete time biased random walk conditioned to avoid Bernoulli obstacles on ${\mathbb Z}^d$ ($d\geq 2$) up to time $N$. This model is known to undergo a phase transition: for a large bias, the walk is ballistic whereas for a small bias, it is sub-ballistic. We prove that in the sub-ballistic phase, the random walk is contained in a ball of radius $O(N^{1/(d+2)})$, which is the same scale as for the unbiased case. As an intermediate step, we also prove large deviation principles for the endpoint distribution for the unbiased random walk at scales between $N^{1/(d+2)}$ and $o(N^{d…
We study biased random walk on subcritical and supercritical Galton-Watson trees conditioned to survive in the transient, sub-ballistic regime. By considering offspring laws with infinite variance, we extend previously known results for the walk on the supercritical tree and observe new trapping phenomena for the walk on the subcritical tree which, in this case, always yield sub-ballisticity. This is contrary to the walk on the supercritical tree which always has some ballistic phase.
As a model of trapping by biased motion in random structure, we study the time taken for a biased random walk to return to the root of a subcritical Galton-Watson tree. We do so for trees in which these biases are randomly chosen, independently for distinct edges, according to a law that satisfies a logarithmic non-lattice condition. The mean return time of the walk is in essence given by the total conductance of the tree. We determine the asymptotic decay of this total conductance, finding it to have a pure power-law decay. In the case of the conductance associated to a single vertex at maxim…
A subcritical branching process in random environment (BPRE) is considered whose associated random walk does not satisfy the Cramer condition. The asymptotics for the survival probability of the process is investigated, and a Yaglom type conditional limit theorem is proved for the number of particles up to moment $n$ given survival to this moment. Contrary to other types of subcritical BPRE, the limiting distribution is not discrete. We also show that the process survives for a long time owing to a single big jump of the associate random walk accompanied by a population explosion at the beginn…
We study the maximal displacement of a one dimensional subcritical branching random walk initiated by a single particle at the origin. For each $n\in\mathbb{N},$ let $M_{n}$ be the rightmost position reached by the branching random walk up to generation $n$. Under the assumption that the offspring distribution has a finite third moment and the jump distribution has mean zero and a finite probability generating function, we show that there exists $ρ>1$ such that the function \[ g(c,n):=ρ^{cn} P(M_{n}\geq cn), \quad \mbox{for each }c>0 \mbox{ and } n\in\mathbb{N}, \] satisfies the following prop…
Consider a branching random walk on the real line with a killing barrier at zero: starting from a nonnegative point, particles reproduce and move independently, but are killed when they touch the negative half-line. The population of the killed branching random walk dies out almost surely in both critical and subcritical cases, where by subcritical case we mean that the rightmost particle of the branching random walk without killing has a negative speed, and by critical case, when this speed is zero. We investigate the total progeny of the killed branching random walk and give their precise ta…
We obtain a large deviations principle for the self-intersection local times for a symmetric random walk in dimension d>4. As an application, we obtain moderate deviations for random walk in random sceneries in some region of parameters.
We present a Darboux-Wiener type lemma and apply it to obtain an exact asymptotic for the variance of the self-intersection of one and two-dimensional random walks. As a corollary, we obtain a central limit theorem for random walk in random scenery conjectured by Kesten and Spitzer in 1979.
We study the mean and variance of the number of self-intersections of the equilateral isotropic random walk in the plane, as well as the corresponding quantities for isotropic equilateral random polygons (random walks conditioned to return to their starting point after a given number of steps). The expected number of self-intersections is $(2/π^2)n\log n + O(n)$ for both walks and polygons with $n$ steps. The variance is $O(n^2 \log n)$ for both walks and polygons, which shows that the number of self-intersections exhibits concentration around the mean.
Let $S^{1},S^{2}$ be independent simple random walks in $\mathbb{Z}^{d}$ ($d=2,3$) started at the origin. We construct two-sided random walk paths conditioned that $S^{1}[0,\infty) \cap S^{2}[1, \infty) = \emptyset$.
We consider Random Walk in Random Scenery, denoted $X_n$, where the random walk is symmetric on $Z^d$, with $d>4$, and the random field is made up of i.i.d random variables with a stretched exponential tail decay, with exponent $α$ with $1<α$. We present asymptotics for the probability, over both randomness, that $\{X_n>n^β\}$ for $1/2<β<1$. To obtain such asymptotics, we establish large deviations estimates for the the self-intersection local times process.
We first study a model, introduced recently in \cite{ES}, of a critical branching random walk in an IID random environment on the $d$-dimensional integer lattice. The walker performs critical (0-2) branching at a lattice point if and only if there is no `obstacle' placed there. The obstacles appear at each site with probability $p\in [0,1)$ independently of each other. We also consider a similar model, where the offspring distribution is subcritical. Let $S_n$ be the event of survival up to time $n$. We show that on a set of full $\mathbb P_p$-measure, as $n\to\infty$, (i) Critical case: P^ω(S…
We consider subcritical branching processes with immigration which evolve under the influence of a random environment and study the tail distribution of life periods of such processes defined as the length of the time interval between the moment when first invader (or invaders) came to an empty site until the moment when the site becomes empty again. We prove that the tail distribution decays with exponential rate. The main tools are the change of measure and some conditional limit theorems for random walks.
We obtain large deviations estimates for the self-intersection local times for a symmetric random walk in dimension 3. Also, we show that the main contribution to making the self-intersection large, in a time period of length $n$, comes from sites visited less than some power of $\log(n)$. This is opposite to the situation in dimensions larger or equal to 5. Finally, we present two applications of our estimates: (i) to moderate deviations estimates for the range of a random walk, and (ii) to moderate deviations for random walk in random sceneries.
We prove existence of intersection exponents xi(k,lambda) for biased random walks on d-dimensional half-infinite discrete cylinders, and show that, as functions of lambda, these exponents are real analytic. As part of the argument, we prove convergence to stationarity of a time-inhomogeneous Markov chain on half-infinite random paths. Furthermore, we show this convergence takes place at exponential rate, an estimate obtained via a coupling of weighted half-infinite paths.
Let B_n be the number of self-intersections of a symmetric random walk with finite second moments in the integer planar lattice. We obtain moderate deviation estimates for B_n - E B_n and E B_n- B_n, which are given in terms of the best constant of a certain Gagliardo-Nirenberg inequality. We also prove the corresponding laws of the iterated logarithm.
The asymptotic behavior of a subcritical Branching Process in Random Environment (BPRE) starting with several particles depends on whether the BPRE is strongly subcritical (SS), intermediate subcritical (IS) or weakly subcritical (WS). %Descendances of particles for BPRE are not independent. In the (SS+IS) case, the asymptotic probability of survival is proportional to the initial number of particles, and conditionally on the survival of the population, only one initial particle survives $a.s.$ These two properties do not hold in the (WS) case and different asymptotics are established, which r…
We study a model of continuous-time nearest-neighbor random walk on $\mathbb{Z}^d$ penalized by its occupation time at the origin, also known as a homopolymer. For a fixed real parameter $β$ and time $t>0$, we consider the probability measure on paths of the random walk starting from the origin whose Radon-Nikodym derivative is proportional to the exponent of the product $β$ times the occupation time at the origin up to time $t$. The case $β>0$ was studied previously by Cranston and Molchanov arXiv:1508.06915. We consider the case $β<0$, which is intrinsically different only when the underlyin…
The main purpose of this work is to define planar self-intersection local time by an alternative approach which is based on an almost sure pathwise approximation of planar Brownian motion by simple, symmetric random walks. As a result, Brownian self-intersection local time is obtained as an almost sure limit of local averages of simple random walk self-intersection local times. An important tool is a discrete version of the Tanaka--Rosen--Yor formula; the continuous version of the formula is obtained as an almost sure limit of the discrete version. The author hopes that this approach to self-i…
For a branching process in random environment it is assumed that the offspring distribution of the individuals varies in a random fashion, independently from one generation to the other. Interestingly there is the possibility that the process may at the same time be subcritical and, conditioned on nonextinction, 'supercritical'. This so-called weakly subcritical case is considered in this paper. We study the asymptotic survival probability and the size of the population conditioned on non-extinction. Also a functional limit theorem is proven, which makes the conditional supercriticality manife…
Let X and Y be independent transient Markov chains on the same state space that have the same transition probabilities. Let L denote the ``loop-erased path'' obtained from the path of X by erasing cycles when they are created. We prove that if the paths of X and Y have infinitely many intersections a.s., then L and Y also have infinitely many intersections a.s.
Let $(X_t,t\geq 0)$ be a random walk on $\mathbb{Z}^d$. Let $ l_T(x)= \int_0^T δ_x(X_s)ds$ the local time at the state $x$ and $ I_T= \sum\limits_{x\in\mathbb{Z}^d} l_T(x)^q $ the q-fold self-intersection local time (SILT). In \cite{Castell} Castell proves a large deviations principle for the SILT of the simple random walk in the critical case $q(d-2)=d$. In the supercritical case $q(d-2)>d$, Chen and Mörters obtain in \cite{ChenMorters} a large deviations principle for the intersection of $q$ independent random walks, and Asselah obtains in \cite{Asselah5} a large deviations principle for the…
Correction to "The stepping stone model in a random environment" -- limit theorems for the occupation time and intersection time of reversible random walks in random environments
Let S_1(n),...,S_p(n) be independent symmetric random walks in Z^d. We establish moderate deviations and law of the iterated logarithm for the intersection of the ranges #{S_1[0,n]\cap... \cap S_p[0,n]} in the case d=2, p\ge 2 and the case d=3, p=2.
The asymptotics of the probability that the self-intersection local time of a random walk on $\Z^d$ exceeds its expectation by a large amount is a fascinating subject because of its relation to some models from Statistical Mechanics, to large-deviation theory and variational analysis and because of the variety of the effects that can be observed. However, the proof of the upper bound is notoriously difficult and requires various sophisticated techniques. We survey some heuristics and some recently elaborated techniques and results. This is an extended summary of a talk held on the CIRM-confere…
We prove a Large Deviations Principle for the number of intersections of two independent infinite-time ranges in dimension five and more, improving upon the moment bounds of Khanin, Mazel, Shlosman and Sina{ï} [KMSS94]. This settles, in the discrete setting, a conjecture of van den Berg, Bolthausen and den Hollander [BBH04], who analyzed this question for the Wiener sausage in finite-time horizon. The proof builds on their result (which was resumed in the discrete setting by Phetpradap [Phet12]), and combines it with a series of tools that were developed in recent works of the authors [AS17, A…
We consider a left-transient random walk in a random environment on Z that will be disturbed by cookies inducing a drift to the right of strength 1. The number of cookies per site is i.i.d. and independent of the environment. Criteria for recurrence and transience of the random walk are obtained. For this purpose we use subcritical branching processes in random environments with immigration and formulate criteria for recurrence and transience for these processes.
The voter model is a classical interacting particle system modelling how consensus is formed across a network. We analyse the time to consensus for the voter model when the underlying graph is a subcritical scale-free random graph. Moreover, we generalise the model to include a `temperature' parameter. The interplay between the temperature and the structure of the random graph leads to a very rich phase diagram, where in the different phases different parts of the underlying geometry dominate the time to consensus. Finally, we also consider a discursive voter model, where voters discuss their …
We consider a subcritical branching process in an i.i.d. random environment, in which one immigrant arrives at each generation. We consider the event $% \mathcal{A}_{i}(n)$ that all individuals alive at time $n$ are offspring of the immigrant which joined the population at time $i$ and investigate the asymptotic probability of this extreme event when $n\to\infty$ and $i$ is either fixed, or the difference $n-i$ is fixed, or $\min(i,n-i)\to\infty.$ To deduce the desired asymptotics we establish some limit theorems for random walks conditioned to be nonnegative or negative.
We study a continuous time random walk on the $d$-dimensional lattice, subject to a drift and an attraction to large clusters of a subcritical Bernoulli site percolation. We find two distinct regimes: a ballistic one, and a subballistic one taking place when the attraction is strong enough. We identify the speed in the former case, and the algebraic rate of escape in the latter case. Finally, we discuss the diffusive behavior in the case of zero drift and weak attraction.
We prove CLTs for biased randomly trapped random walks in one dimension. In particular, we will establish an annealed invariance principal by considering a sequence of regeneration times under the assumption that the trapping times have finite second moment. In a quenched environment, an environment dependent centring is determined which is necessary to achieve a central limit theorem. As our main motivation, we apply these results to biased walks on subcritical Galton-Watson trees conditioned to survive and prove a tight bound on the bias required to obtain such limiting behaviour.
Starting with a percolation model in $\Z^d$ in the subcritical regime, we consider a random walk described as follows: the probability of transition from $x$ to $y$ is proportional to some function $f$ of the size of the cluster of $y$. This function is supposed to be increasing, so that the random walk is attracted by bigger clusters. For $f(t)=e^{βt}$ we prove that there is a phase transition in $β$, i.e., the random walk is subdiffusive for large $β$ and is diffusive for small $β$.
For a subcritical Galton-Watson process $(ζ_n)$, it is well known that under an $X \log X$ condition, the quotient $P(ζ_n > 0)/ Eζ_n$ has a finite positive limit. There is an analogous result for a (one-dimensional) supercritical branching random walk: when $a$ is in the so-called subcritical speed area, the probability of presence around $na$ in the $n$-th generation is asymptotically proportional to the corresponding expectation. In Rouault (1993) this result was stated under a natural $X \log X$ assumption on the offspring point process and a (unnatural) condition on the offspring mean. Her…
Let $Z_{n}$ be the number of individuals in a subcritical BPRE evolving in the environment generated by iid probability distributions. Let $X$ be the logarithm of the expected offspring size per individual given the environment. Assuming that the density of $X$ has the form $$p_{X}(x)=x^{-β-1}l_{0}(x)e^{-ρx}$$ for some $β>2,$ a slowly varying function $l_{0}(x)$ and $ρ\in \left( 0,1\right),$ we find the asymptotic survival probability and prove a Yaglom type conditional limit theorem for the process. The survival probability decreases exponentially with an additional polynomial term related to…
In the parking model on $\mathbb{Z}^d$, each vertex is initially occupied by a car (with probability $p$) or by a vacant parking spot (with probability $1-p$). Cars perform independent random walks and when they enter a vacant spot, they park there, thereby rendering the spot occupied. Cars visiting occupied spots simply keep driving (continuing their random walk). It is known that $p=1/2$ is a critical value in the sense that the origin is a.s. visited by finitely many distinct cars when $p<1/2$, and by infinitely many distinct cars when $p\geq 1/2$. Furthermore, any given car a.s. eventually…
There is a close connection between intersections of Brownian motion paths and percolation on trees. Recently, ideas from probability on trees were an important component of the multifractal analysis of Brownian occupation measure, in joint work with A. Dembo, J. Rosen and O. Zeitouni. As a consequence, we proved two conjectures about simple random walk in two dimensions: The first, due to Erdős and Taylor (1960), involves the number of visits to the most visited lattice site in the first $n$ steps of the walk. The second, due to Aldous (1989), concerns the number of steps it takes a simple ra…
For a random walk $S_n, n\geq 0$ in $\mathbb{Z}^d$, let $l(n,x)$ be its local time at the site $x\in \mathbb{Z}^d$. Define the $α$-fold self intersection local time $L_n(α) := \sum_{x} l(n,x)^α$, and let $L_n(α|ε, d)$ the corresponding quantity for $d$-dimensional simple random walk. Without imposing any moment conditions, we show that the variances of the local times $\mathop{var}(L_n(α))$ of any genuinely $d$-dimensional random walk are bounded above by the corresponding characteristics of the simple symmetric random walk in $\mathbb{Z}^d$, i.e. $\mathop{var}(L_n(α)) \leq C \mathop{var}[L_n(…
We study the behavior of random walk on dynamical percolation. In this model, the edges of a graph G are either open or closed and refresh their status at rate μ while at the same time a random walker moves on G at rate 1 but only along edges which are open. On the d-dimensional torus with side length n, we prove that in the subcritical regime, the mixing times for both the full system and the random walker are n^2/μ up to constants. We also obtain results concerning mean squared displacement and hitting times. Finally, we show that the usual recurrence transience dichotomy for the lattice Z^d…
We consider the interlacement Poisson point process on the space of doubly-infinite Z^d-valued trajectories modulo time-shift, tending to infinity at positive and negative infinite times. The set of vertices and edges visited by at least one of these trajectories is the random interlacement at level u of Sznitman arXiv:0704.2560 . We prove that for any u>0, almost surely, (1) any two vertices in the random interlacement at level u are connected via at most ceiling(d/2) trajectories of the point process, and (2) there are vertices in the random interlacement at level u which can only be connect…
We consider a branching random walk in a random space-time environment of disasters where each particle is killed when meeting a disaster. This extends the model of the "random walk in a disastrous random environment" introduced by [15]. We obtain a criterion for positive survival probability, see Theorem 1. The proofs for the subcritical and the supercritical cases follow standard arguments, which involve moment methods and a comparison with an embedded branching process with i.i.d. offspring distributions. The proof of almost sure extinction in the critical case is more difficult and uses th…
