We study how the recurrence and transience of space-time sets for a branching random walk on a graph depends on the offspring distribution. Here, we say that a space-time set $A$ is recurrent if it is visited infinitely often almost surely on the event that the branching random walk survives forever, and say that $A$ is transient if it is visited at most finitely often almost surely. We prove that if $μ$ and $ν$ are supercritical offspring distributions with means $\bar μ< \bar ν$ then every space-time set that is recurrent with respect to the offspring distribution $μ$ is also recurrent with respect to the offspring distribution $ν$ and similarly that every space-time set that is transient with respect to the offspring distribution $ν$ is also transient with respect to the offspring distribution $μ$. To prove this, we introduce a new order on probability measures that we call the germ order and prove more generally that the same result holds whenever $μ$ is smaller than $ν$ in the germ order. Our work is inspired by the work of Johnson and Junge (AIHP 2018), who used related stochastic orders to study the frog model.
In this paper, we study recurrence and transience of Lévy-type processes, that is, Feller processes associated with pseudo-differential operators. Since the recurrence property of Lévy-type processes in dimensions greater than two is vacuous and the recurrence and transience of one-dimensional Lévy-type processes have been very well investigated, in this paper we are focused on the two-dimensional case only. In particular, we study perturbations of two-dimensional Lévy-type processes which do not affect their recurrence and transience properties, we derive sufficient conditions for their recur…
We establish recurrence and transience criteria for critical branching processes in random environment with immigration. These results are then applied to discuss recurrence and transience of a recurrent random walk in a random environment on Z that will be disturbed by cookies inducing a drift to the right of strength 1.
For normally reflected Brownian motion and for simple random walk on independently growing in time d-dimensional domains, d>=3, we establish a sharp criterion for recurrence versus transience in terms of the growth rate.
We consider recurrence versus transience for models of random walks on domains of $\mathbb{Z}^d$, in which monotone interaction enforces domain growth as a result of visits by the walk (or probes it sent), to the neighborhood of domain boundary.
Semi-Levy process is an additive process with periodically stationary increments. In particular, it is a generalization of Levy process. The dichotomy of recurrence and transience of Levy processes is well known, but this is not necessarily true for general additive processes. In this paper, we prove the recurrence and transience dichotomy of semi-Levy processes. For the proof, we introduce a concept of semi-random walk and discuss its recurrence and transience properties. An example of semi-Levy process constructed from two independent Levy processes is investigated. Finally, we prove the law…
We give three different criteria for transience of a Branching Markov Chain. These conditions enable us to give a classification of Branching Random Walks in Random Environment (BRWRE) on Cayley Graphs in recurrence and transience. This classification is stated explicitly for BRWRE on $\Z^d.$ Furthermore, we emphasize the interplay between Branching Markov Chains and the spectral radius. We prove properties of the spectral radius of the Random Walk in Random Environment with the help of appropriate Branching Markov Chains.
The notion of degree and related notions concerning recurrence and transience for a class of L'evy processes on metric Abelian groups are studied. The case of random walks on a hierarchical group is examined with emphasis on the role of the ultrametric structure of the group and on analogies and differences with Euclidean random walks. Applications to separation of time scales and occupation times of multilevel branching systems are discussed.
We consider a discrete time population model for which each individual alive at time $n$ survives independently of everybody else at time $n+1$ with probability $β_n$. The sequence $(β_n)$ is i.i.d. and constitutes our random environment. Moreover, at every time $n$ we add $Z_n$ individuals to the population. The sequence $(Z_n)$ is also i.i.d. We find sufficient conditions for null recurrence and transience (positive recurrence has been addressed by Neuts). We apply our results to a particular $(Z_n)$ distribution and deterministic $β$. This particular case shows a rather unusual phase transi…
We characterize recurrence and transience of nonnegative multivariate autoregressive processes of order one with random contractive coefficient matrix, of subcritical multitype Galton-Watson branching processes in random environment with immigration, and of the related max-autoregressive processes and general random exchange processes. Our criterion is given in terms of the maximal Lyapunov exponent of the coefficient matrix and the cumulative distribution function of the innovation/immigration component.
We discuss complementary recurrence and transience criteria for stochastic processes $(X_n)_{n \ge 0}$ with values in the $d$-dimensional orthant $\mathbb R^d_+$ fulfilling a non-linear stochastic equation of the form $X_{n+1}=MX_n+g(X_n)+ ξ_n$ with a primitive matrix $M$ and random noise $ξ_n$ and obeying a weak Markov property. As examples we discuss bisexual Galton-Watson processes and multivariate Galton-Watson processes, which both may be population size dependent.
We develop criteria for recurrence and transience of one-dimensional Markov processes which have jumps and oscillate between $+\infty$ and $-\infty$. The conditions are based on a Markov chain which only consists of jumps (overshoots) of the process into complementary parts of the state space. In particular we show that a stable-like process with generator $-(-Δ)^{α(x)/2}$ such that $α(x)=α$ for $x<-R$ and $α(x)=β$ for $x>R$ for some $R>0$ and $α,β\in(0,2)$ is transient if and only if $α+β<2$, otherwise it is recurrent. As a special case this yields a new proof for the recurrence, point recurr…
For i.i.d. random vectors $(M_{1},Q_{1}),(M_{2},Q_{2}),\ldots$ such that $M>0$ a.s., $Q\geq 0$ a.s. and $\mathbb{P}(Q=0)<1$, the random difference equation $X_{n}=M_{n}X_{n-1}+Q_{n}$, $n=1,2,\ldots$, is studied in the critical case when the random walk with increments $\log M_{1},\log M_{2}$ is oscillating. We provide conditions for the null-recurrence and transience of the Markov chain $(X_{n})_{n\ge 0}$ by inter alia drawing on techniques developed in the related article Alsmeyer et al (2017) for another case exhibiting the null-recurrence/transience dichotomy.
We study the frog model on $\mathbb{Z}^d$ with drift in dimension $d \geq 2$ and establish the existence of transient and recurrent regimes depending on the transition probabilities. We focus on a model in which the particles perform nearest neighbour random walks which are balanced in all but one direction. This gives a model with two parameters. We present conditions on the parameters for recurrence and transience, revealing interesting differences between dimension $d=2$ and dimension $d \geq 3$. Our proofs make use of (refined) couplings with branching random walks for the transience, and …
We provide some on-off type criteria for recurrence and transience of regime-switching diffusion processes using the theory of M-matrix and the Perron-Frobenius theorem. State-independent and state-dependent regime-switching diffusion processes in a finite space and a countable space are both studied. We put forward a finite partition method to deal with switching process in a countable space. As an application, we improve the known criteria for recurrence of linear regime-switching diffusion processes, and provide an on-off type criterion for a kind of nonlinear regime-switching diffusion pro…
We obtain complementary recurrence and transience criteria for processes $X=(X_n)_{n \ge 0}$ with values in $\mathbb R^d_+$ fulfilling a non-linear equation $X_{n+1}=MX_n+g(X_n)+ ξ_{n+1}$. Here $M$ denotes a primitive matrix having Perron-Frobenius eigenvalue 1, and $g$ denotes some function. The conditional expectation and variance of the noise $(ξ_{n+1})_{n \ge 0}$ are such that $X$ obeys a weak form of the Markov property. The results generalize criteria for the 1-dimensional case in [5].
We provide sufficient conditions for the validity of a dichotomy, i.e. zero-one law, between recurrence and transience of general frog models. In particular, the results cover frog models with i.i.d. numbers of frogs per site where the frog dynamics are given by quasi-transitive Markov chains or by random walks in a common random environment including super-critical percolation clusters on $\mathbb{Z}^d$. We also give a sufficient and almost sharp condition for recurrence of uniformly elliptic frog processes on $\mathbb{Z}^d$. Its proof uses the general zero-one law.
We investigate excited random walks on $\Z^d, d\ge 1,$ and on planar strips $\Z\times\{0,1,...,L-1\}$ which have a drift in a given direction. The strength of the drift may depend on a random i.i.d. environment and on the local time of the walk. We give exact criteria for recurrence and transience, thus generalizing results by Benjamini and Wilson for once-excited random walk on $\Z^d$ and by the author for multi-excited random walk on $\Z$.
We investigate the transience/recurrence of a non-Markovian, one-dimensional diffusion process which consists of a Brownian motion with a non-anticipating drift that has two phases---a transient to $+\infty$ mode which is activated when the diffusion is sufficiently near its running maximum, and a recurrent mode which is activated otherwise. We also consider the speed of a diffusion with a two-phase drift, where the drift is equal to a certain positive constant when the diffusion is sufficiently near its running maximum, and is equal to another positive constant otherwise.
Consider a simple random walk on the integers with the following transition mechanism. At each site $x$, the probability of jumping to the right is $ω(x)\in[\frac12,1)$, until the first time the process jumps to the left from site $x$, from which time onward the probability of jumping to the right is $\frac12$. We investigate the transience/recurrence properties of this process in both deterministic and stationary, ergodic environments $\{ω(x)\}_{x\in Z}$. In deterministic environments, we also study the speed of the process.
In this paper, as a main result, we derive a Chung-Fuchs type condition for the recurrence of Feller processes associated with pseudo-differential operators. In the Lévy process case, this condition reduces to the classical and well-known Chung-Fuchs condition. Further, we also discuss the recurrence and transience of Feller processes with respect to the dimension of the state space and Pruitt indices and the recurrence and transience of Feller-Dynkin diffusions and stable-like processes. Finally, in the one-dimensional symmetric case, we study perturbations of Feller processes which do not af…
We develop a criterion for transience for a general model of branching Markov chains. In the case of multi-dimensional branching random walk in random environment (BRWRE) this criterion becomes explicit. In particular, we show that \emph{Condition L} of Comets and Popov is necessary and sufficient for transience as conjectured. Furthermore, the criterion applies to two important classes of branching random walks and implies that the critical branching random walk is transient resp. dies out locally.
Consider the following interacting particle system on the $d$-ary tree, known as the frog model: Initially, one particle is awake at the root and i.i.d. Poisson many particles are sleeping at every other vertex. Particles that are awake perform simple random walks, awakening any sleeping particles they encounter. We prove that there is a phase transition between transience and recurrence as the initial density of particles increases, and we give the order of the transition up to a logarithmic factor.
We consider random walks associated with conductances on Delaunay triangulations, Gabriel graphs and skeletons of Voronoi tilings which are generated by point processes in $\mathbb{R}^d$. Under suitable assumptions on point processes and conductances, we show that, for almost any realization of the point process, these random walks are recurrent if $d=2$ and transient if $d\geq 3$. These results hold for a large variety of point processes including Poisson point processes, Mat{é}rn cluster and Mat{é}rn hardcore processes which have clustering or repulsive properties. In order to prove them, we…
The frog model is a growing system of random walks where a particle is added whenever a new site is visited. A longstanding open question is how often the root is visited on the infinite $d$-ary tree. We prove the model undergoes a phase transition, finding it recurrent for $d=2$ and transient for $d\geq 5$. Simulations suggest strong recurrence for $d=2$, weak recurrence for $d=3$, and transience for $d\geq 4$. Additionally, we prove a 0-1 law for all $d$-ary trees, and we exhibit a graph on which a 0-1 law does not hold. To prove recurrence when $d=2$, we construct a recursive distributional…
We study a model of multi-excited random walk on a regular tree which generalizes the models of the once excited random walk and the digging random walk introduced by Volkov (2003). We show the existence of a phase transition of the recurrence/transience property of the walk. In particular, we prove that the asymptotic behavior of the walk depends on the order of the excitations, which contrasts with the one dimensional setting studied by Zerner (2005). We also consider the limiting speed of the walk in the transient regime and conjecture that it is not a monotonic function of the environment.
We investigate the long-run behavior of a stochastic replicator process, which describes game dynamics for a symmetric two-player game under aggregate shocks. We establish an averaging principle that relates time averages of the process and Nash equilibria of a suitably modified game. Furthermore, a sufficient condition for transience is given in terms of mixed equilibria and definiteness of the payoff matrix. We also present necessary and sufficient conditions for stochastic stability of pure equilibria.
Given a sequence $(M_{k}, Q_{k})_{k\ge 1}$ of independent, identically distributed ran\-dom vectors with nonnegative components, we consider the recursive Markov chain $(X_{n})_{n\ge 0}$, defined by the random difference equation $X_{n}=M_{n}X_{n-1}+Q_{n}$ for $n\ge 1$, where $X_{0}$ is independent of $(M_{k}, Q_{k})_{k\ge 1}$. Criteria for the null-recurrence/transience are provided in the situation where $(X_{n})_{n\ge 0}$ is contractive in the sense that $M_{1}\cdot\ldots\cdot M_{n}\to 0$ a.s., yet occasional large values of the $Q_{n}$ overcompensate the contractive behavior so that positi…
We study Markov processes conditioned so that their local time must grow slower than a prescribed function. Building upon recent work on Brownian motion with constrained local time in [5] and [33], we study transience and recurrence for a broad class of Markov processes. In order to understand the distribution of the local time, we determine the distribution of a non-decreasing Lévy process (the inverse local time) conditioned to remain above a given level which varies in time. We study a time-dependent region, in contrast to previous works in which a process is conditioned to remain in a fixe…
The question of recurrence and transience of branching Markov chains is more subtle than for ordinary Markov chains; they can be classified in transience, weak recurrence, and strong recurrence. We review criteria for transience and weak recurrence and give several new conditions for weak recurrence and strong recurrence. These conditions make a unified treatment of known and new examples possible and provide enough information to distinguish between weak and strong recurrence. This represents a step towards a general classification of branching Markov chains. In particular, we show that in \e…
This is the third in a series of papers in which we consider one-dimensional Random Walk in Cooling Random Environment (RWCRE). The latter is obtained by starting from one-dimensional Random Walk in Random Environment (RWRE) and resampling the environment along a sequence of deterministic times, called refreshing times. In the present paper we explore two questions for general refreshing times. First, we investigate how the recurrence versus transience criterion known for RWRE changes for RWCRE. Second, we explore the fluctuations for RWCRE when RWRE is either recurrent or satisfies a classica…
We study recurrence and transience for Lévy processes induced by topological transformation groups. In particular the transience-recurrence dichotomy in terms of potential measures is established and transience is shown to be equivalent to the potential measure having finite mass on compact sets when the group acts transitively. It is known that all bi-invariant Lévy processes acting in irreducible Riemannian symmetric pairs of non-compact type are transient. We show that we also have "harmonic transience", i.e. local integrability of the inverse of the real part of the characteristic exponent…
We consider excited random walk (ERW) on $\mathbb{Z}$ in environments with identical stacks of infinitely many cookies at each site, subject to the constraint that the total drift per site $δ= \sum (2p_j - 1)$ is finite. Building on the methods of Kozma, Orenshtein, and Shinkar (arXiv:1311.7439), we show that ERW in finite-drift environments is recurrent when $|δ|<1$ and transient when $|δ|>1$. In the case $|δ|=1$ we prove that ERW is recurrent under mild assumptions on the environment. In addition, we show that ERW may be transient when $|δ|=1$, an interesting new behavior that was not presen…
We give recurrence and transience criteria for two cases of time-homogeneous Markov chains on the real line with transition kernel $p(x,dy)=f_x(y-x)dy$, where $f_x(y)$ are probability densities of symmetric distributions and, for large $|y|$, have a power-law decay with exponent $α(x)+1$, with $α(x)\in(0,2)$. If $f_x(y)$ is the density of a symmetric $α$-stable distribution for negative $x$ and the density of a symmetric $β$-stable distribution for non-negative $x$, where $α,β\in(0,2)$, then the chain is recurrent if and only if $α+β\geq2.$ If the function $x\longmapsto f_x$ is periodic and if…
Consider a sequence of i.i.d. random variables $X_n$ where each random variable is refreshed independently according to a Poisson clock. At any fixed time $t$ the law of the sequence is the same as for the sequence at time 0 but at random times almost sure properties of the sequence may be violated. If there are such \emph{exceptional times} we say that the property is \emph{dynamically sensitive}, otherwise we call it \emph{dynamically stable}. In this note we consider branching random walks on Cayley graphs and prove that recurrence and transience are dynamically stable in the sub-and superc…
Let $\mathcal{K}\subset R^d$, $d\ge2$, be a smooth, bounded domain satisfying $0\in\mathcal{K}$, and let $f(t),\ t\ge0$, be a smooth, continuous, nondecreasing function satisfying $f(0)>1$. Define $D_t=f(t)\mathcal{K}\subset R^d$. Consider a diffusion process corresponding to the generator $\frac12Δ+b(x)\nabla$ in the time-dependent domain $D_t$ with normal reflection at the time-dependent boundary. Consider also the one-dimensional diffusion process corresponding to the generator $\frac12\frac{d^2}{dx^2}+B(x)\frac d{dx}$ on the time-dependent domain $(1,f(t))$ with reflection at the boundary.…
A short proof of the equivalence of the recurrence of non-backtracking random walk and that of simple random walk on regular infinite graphs is given. It is then shown how this proof can be extended in certain cases where the graph in question is not regular.
We establish an integral test describing the exact cut-off between recurrence and transience for normally reflected Brownian motion in certain unbounded domains in a class of warped product manifolds. Besides extending a previous result by R. Pinsky, who treated the case in which the ambient space is flat, our result recovers the classical test for the standard Brownian motion in model spaces. Moreover, it allows us to discuss the recurrence/transience dichotomy for certain generalized tube domains around totally geodesic submanifolds in hyperbolic space.
We study the behavior of the random walk on the infinite cluster of independent long range percolation in dimensions $d=1,2$, where $x$ and $y$ a re connected with probability $\simβ/\|x-y\|^{-s}$. We show that when $d<s<2d$ the walk is transient, and when $s\geq 2d$, the walk is recurrent. The proof of transience is based on a renormalization argument. As a corollary of this renormalization argument, we get that for every dimension $d$, if $d<s<2d$, then critical percolation has no infinite clusters. This result is extended to the free random cluster model. A second corollary is that when $d\…
We introduce the notion of {\bf a}-walk $S(n)=a_1 X_1+\dots+a_n X_n$, based on a sequence of positive numbers ${\bf a}=(a_1,a_2,\dots)$ and a Rademacher sequence $X_1,X_2,\dots$. We study recurrence/transience (properly defined) of such walks for various sequences of ${\bf a}$. In particular, we establish the classification in the cases where $a_k=\lfloor k^β\rfloor$, $β>0$, as well as in the case $a_k=\lceil \log_γk \rceil$ or $a_k=\log_γk$ for $γ>1$.
We study positive recurrence and transience of a two-station network in which the behavior of the server in each station is governed by a Markov chain with a finite number of server states; this service process can represent various service disciplines such as a non-preemptive priority service and K-limited service. Assuming that exogenous customers arrive according to independent Markovian arrival processes (MAPs), we represent the behavior of the whole network as a continuous-time Markov chain and, by the uniformization technique, obtain the corresponding discrete-time Markov chain, which is…
We prove the trichotomy between transience to the right, transience to the left and recurrence of one-dimensional nearest-neighbour random walks in dynamic random environments under fairly general assumptions, namely: stationarity under space-time translations, ergodicity under spatial translations, and a mild ellipticity condition. In particular, the result applies to general uniformly elliptic models and also to a large class of non-uniformly elliptic cases that are i.i.d. in space and Markovian in time. An immediate consequence is the recurrence of models that are symmetric with respect to …
The Tree Builder Random Walk is a special random walk that evolves on trees whose size increases with time, randomly and depending upon the walker. After every s steps of the walker, a random number of vertices are added to the tree and attached to the current position of the walker. These processes share similarities with other important classes of markovian and non-markovian random walks presenting a large variety of behaviors according to parameters specifications. We show that for a large and most significant class of tree builder random walks, the process is either null recurrent or trans…
We study a random walk on $\mathbb{Z}$ which evolves in a dynamic environment determined by its own trajectory. Sites flip back and forth between two modes, $p$ and $q$. $R$ consecutive right jumps from a site in the $q$-mode are required to switch it to the $p$-mode, and $L$ consecutive left jumps from a site in the $p$-mode are required to switch it to the $q$-mode. From a site in the $p$-mode the walk jumps right with probability $p$ and left with probability $1-p$, while from a site in the $q$-mode these probabilities are $q$ and $1-q$. We prove a sharp cutoff for right/left transience of …
We present a coherent approach to recurrence and transience, starting from a version of the Riesz decomposition theorem for superharmonic elements. Our approach allows straightforward proofs of some known results, entails new theorems, and has applications to other aspects of completely positive operators: It leads to a classification of idempotent Markov operators, thereby identifying concretely the Choi-Effros product, which can be introduced on the range of these maps. We obtain an abstract Poisson integral and a representation theorem for idempotent entanglement breaking channels.
We consider reversible random walks in random environment obtained from symmetric long--range jump rates on a random point process. We prove almost sure transience and recurrence results under suitable assumptions on the point process and the jump rate function. For recurrent models we obtain almost sure estimates on effective resistances in finite boxes. For transient models we construct explicit fluxes with finite energy on the associated electrical network.
We study existence of percolation in the hierarchical group of order $N$, which is an ultrametric space, and transience and recurrence of random walks on the percolation clusters. The connection probability on the hierarchical group for two points separated by distance $k$ is of the form $c_k/N^{k(1+δ)}, δ>-1$, with $c_k=C_0+C_1\log k+C_2k^α$, non-negative constants $C_0, C_1, C_2$, and $α>0$. Percolation was proved in Dawson and Gorostiza (2013) for $δ<1$, and for the critical case, $δ=1,C_2>0$, with $α>2$. In this paper we improve the result for the critical case by showing percolation for $…
We establish transience criteria for symmetric non-local Dirichlet forms on $L^2({\mathbb R}^d)$ in terms of the coefficient growth rates at infinity. Applying these criteria, we find a necessary and sufficient condition for recurrence of Dirichlet forms of symmetric stable-like with unbounded/degenerate coefficients. This condition indicates that both of the coefficient growth rates of small and big jump parts affect the sample path properties of the associated symmetric jump processes.
In this note we investigate the behaviour of Brownian motion conditioned on a growth constraint of its local time which has been previously investigated by Berestycki and Benjamini. For a class of non-decreasing positive functions $f(t); t>0$, we consider the Wiener measure under the condition that the Brownian local time is dominated by the function f up to time T. In the case where $f(t)/t^{3/2}$ is integrable we describe the limiting process as T goes to infinity. Moreover, we prove two conjectures in [BB10] in the case for a class of functions f, for which $f(t)/t^{3/2}$ just fails to be i…
The aim of this note is to extend the result of Angel and Holroyd concerning the transience and the recurrence of transfinite rotor-router walks, for random initial configuration of rotors on homogeneous trees. We address the same question on directed covers of finite graphs, which are also called trees with finitely many cone types or periodic trees. Furthermore, we provide an example of a directed cover such that the rotor-router walk can be either recurrent or transient, depending only on the planar embedding of the periodic tree.
We continue our study of critical branching random walk and branching capacity. In this paper we introduce branching recurrence and branching transience and prove an analogous version of Wiener's Test.
