We consider random walks on the group of orientation-preserving homeomorphisms of the real line ${\mathbb R}$. In particular, the fundamental question of uniqueness of an invariant measure of the generated process is raised. This problem was already studied by Choquet and Deny (1960) in the context of random walks generated by translations of the line. Nowadays the answer is quite well understood in general settings of strongly contractive systems. Here we focus on broader class of systems satisfying the conditions: recurrence, contraction and unbounded action. We prove that under these conditions the random process possesses a unique invariant Radon measure on ${\mathbb R}$. Our work can be viewed as a subsequent paper of Babillot et al. (1997) and Deroin et al. (2013).
We introduce a family of two-dimensional reflected random walks in the positive quadrant and study their Martin boundary. While the minimal boundary is systematically equal to a union of two points, the full Martin boundary exhibits an instability phenomenon, in the following sense: if some parameter associated to the model is rational (resp.\ non-rational), then the Martin boundary is countable, homeomorphic to $\mathbb Z\cup\{\pm\infty\}$ (resp.\ uncountable, homeomorphic to $\mathbb R\cup\{\pm\infty\}$). Such instability phenomena are very rare in the literature. Along the way of proving th…
This paper studies the asymptotic behavior of the Green function of a multidimensional random walk killed when leaving a convex cone with smooth boundary. Our results imply uniqueness, up to a multiplicative factor, of the positive harmonic function for the killed random walk.
We use k-Schur functions to get the minimal boundary of the k-bounded partition poset. This permits to describe the central random walks on affine Grassmannian elements of type A and yields a polynomial expression for their drift. We also recover Rietsch's parametriza-tion of totally nonnegative unitriangular Toeplitz matrices without using quantum cohomology of flag varieties. All the homeomorphisms we define can moreover be made explicit by using the combinatorics of k-Schur functions and elementary computations based on Perron-Frobenius theorem.
We establish via a probabilistic approach the quenched invariance principle for a class of long range random walks in independent (but not necessarily identically distributed) balanced random environments, with the transition probability from $x$ to $y$ on average being comparable to $|x-y|^{-(d+α)}$ with $α\in (0,2]$. We use the martingale property to estimate exit time from balls and establish tightness of the scaled processes, and apply the uniqueness of the martingale problem to identify the limiting process. When $α\in (0,1)$, our approach works even for non-balanced cases. When $α=2$, un…
On the uniqueness of quasi-stationary distributions for population models with spatial structure
University of Buenos Aires（布宜诺斯艾利斯大学）；Instituto de Investigaciones Matemáticas Luis A. Santaló（路易斯·A·桑塔洛数学研究所）；University of São Paulo（圣保罗大学）；Federal University of Minas Gerais（米纳斯吉拉斯联邦大学）
We prove the existence and uniqueness of a discrete nonnegative harmonic function for a random walk satisfying finite range, centering and ellipticity conditions, killed when leaving a globally Lipschitz domain in $\mathbb{Z}^d$. Our method is based on a systematic use of comparison arguments and discrete potential-theoretical techniques.
We prove an invariance principle for a class of zero-drift spatially non-homogeneous random walks in $\mathbb{R}^d$, which may be recurrent in any dimension. The limit $\mathcal{X}$ is an elliptic martingale diffusion, which may be point-recurrent at the origin for any $d\geq2$. To characterise $\mathcal{X}$, we introduce a (non-Euclidean) Riemannian metric on the unit sphere in $\mathbb{R}^d$ and use it to express a related spherical diffusion as a Brownian motion with drift. This representation allows us to establish the skew-product decomposition of the excursions of $\mathcal{X}$ and thus …
For a Markov chain $Y$ with values in a Polish space, consider the entrance Markov chain obtained by sampling $Y$ at the moments when it enters a fixed set $A$ from its complement $A^c$. Similarly, consider the exit Markov chain, obtained by sampling $Y$ at the exit times from $A^c$ to $A$. This paper provides a framework for analysing invariant measures of these two types of Markov chains in the case when the initial chain $Y$ has a known $σ$-finite invariant measure. Under certain recurrence-type assumptions ($Y$ can be transient), we give explicit formulas for invariant measures of these ch…
We consider random walk in a space-time random potential, also known as directed random polymer measures, on the planar square lattice with nearest-neighbor steps and general i.i.d. weights on the vertices. We construct covariant cocycles and use them to prove new results on existence, uniqueness/non-uniqueness, and asymptotic directions of semi-infinite polymer measures (solutions to the Dobrushin-Lanford-Ruelle equations). We also prove non-existence of covariant or deterministically directed bi-infinite polymer measures. Along the way, we prove almost sure existence of Busemann function lim…
Given a probability measure on a finitely generated group, its Martin boundary is a way to compactify the group using the Green's function of the corresponding random walk. We give a complete topological characterization of the Martin boundary of finitely supported random walks on relatively hyperbolic groups with virtually abelian parabolic subgroups. In particular, in the case of nonuniform lattices in the real hyperbolic space H n , we show that the Martin boundary coincides with the CAT (0) boundary of the truncated space, and thus when n = 3, is homeomorphic to the Sierpinski carpet.
We prove that for recurrent, reversible graphs, the following conditions are equivalent: (a) existence and uniqueness of the potential kernel, (b) existence and uniqueness of harmonic measure from infinity, (c) a new anchored Harnack inequality, and (d) one-endedness of the wired Uniform Spanning Tree. In particular this gives a proof of the anchored (and in fact also elliptic) Harnack inequality on the UIPT. This also complements and strengthens some results of Benjamini, Lyons, Peres and Schramm. Furthermore, we make progress towards a conjecture of Aldous and Lyons by proving that these con…
The theory of quasifree quantum stochastic calculus for infinite-dimensional noise is developed within the framework of Hudson-Parthasarathy quantum stochastic calculus. The question of uniqueness for the covariance amplitude with respect to which a given unitary quantum stochastic cocycle is quasifree is addressed, and related to the minimality of the corresponding stochastic dilation. The theory is applied to the identification of a wide class of quantum random walks whose limit processes are driven by quasifree noises.
We prove that random walks on Thompson's group $F$ driven by strictly non-degenerate finitely supported probability measures $μ$ have a non-trivial Poisson boundary. The proof consists in an explicit construction of two different non-trivial $μ$-boundaries. Both of them are defined in terms of the Schreier graph $Γ$ on the dyadic-rational orbit of the canonical action of $F$ on the unit interval (actually, we consider a natural embedding of $F$ into the group $PLF({\mathbb R})$ of piecewise linear homeomorphisms of the real line, and realize $Γ$ on the dyadic-rational orbit in ${\mathbb R}$). …
We study the asymptotic behavior as $t \to \infty$ of a time-dependent family $(μ_t)_{t \geq 0}$ of probability measures on $\mathbb{R}$ solving the kinetic-type evolution equation $\partial_t μ_t + μ_t = Q(μ_t)$ where $Q$ is a smoothing transformation on $\mathbb{R}$. This problem has been investigated earlier, e.g. by Bassetti and Ladelli [Ann. Appl. Probab. 22(5): 1928-1961, 2012] and Bogus, Buraczewski and Marynych [Stochastic Process. Appl. 130(2):677-693, 2020]. Combining the refined analysis of the latter paper, which provides a probabilistic description of the solution $μ_t$ as the law…
We prove Barlow--Bass type resistance estimates for two random walks associated with repeated barycentric subdivisions of a triangle. If the random walk jumps between the centers of triangles in the subdivision that have common sides, the resistance scales as a power of a constant $ρ$ which is theoretically estimated to be in the interval $5/4\leqslantρ\leqslant3/2$, with a numerical estimate $ρ\approx1.306$. This corresponds to the theoretical estimate of spectral dimension $d_S$ between 1.63 and 1.77, with a numerical estimate $d_S\approx1.74$. On the other hand, if the random walk jumps bet…
On the self-intersection time of non-backtracking random walks
Korteweg de Vries Institute for Mathematics, University of Amsterdam（阿姆斯特丹大学科特韦格-德弗里斯数学研究所）；School of Computer Science, Nanjing University, China（南京大学计算机学院）；Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica, Amsterdam（阿姆斯特丹数学与计算机科学中心）；Department of Computer Science, University of Oxford（牛津大学计算机科学系）；King’s College London, Department of Mathematics（伦敦国王学院数学系）；School of Mathematical Sciences, Queen Mary, University of London, UK（伦敦大学玛丽女王学院数学科学学院）；HUN-REN Alfréd Rényi Institute of Mathematics, and Department of Stochastics, Institute of Mathematics, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Hungary（匈牙利研究与教育网络阿尔弗雷德·雷尼数学研究所，布达佩斯技术与经济大学数学研究所随机过程系）
We continue our study of the problem of mixing for a class of PDEs with very degenerate noise. As we established earlier, the uniqueness of stationary measure and its exponential stability in the dual-Lipschitz metric holds under the hypothesis that the unperturbed equation has exactly one globally stable equilibrium point. In this paper, we relax that condition, assuming only global controllability to a given point. It is proved that the uniqueness of a stationary measure and convergence to it are still valid, whereas the rate of convergence is not necessarily exponential. The result is appli…
We analyze both continuous and discrete-time Ollivier-Ricci curvatures of locally-finite weighted graphs $\G$ equipped with a given distance "$\dist$" (w.r.t. which $\G$ is metrically complete) and for general random walks. We show the continuous-time Ollivier-Ricci curvature is well-defined for a large class of Markovian and non-Markovian random walks and provide a criterion for existence of continuous-time Ollivier-Ricci curvature; the said results generalize the previous rather limited constructions in the literature. In addition, important properties of both discrete-time and continuous-ti…
