In this work, we consider a modification of the usual Branching Random Walk (BRW), where we give certain independent and identically distributed (i.i.d.) displacements to all the particles at the $n$-th generation, which may be different from the driving increment distribution. This model was first introduced by Bandyopadhyay and Ghosh (2021) and they termed it as Last Progeny Modified Branching Random Walk (LPM-BRW). Under very minimal assumptions, we derive the large deviation principle (LDP) for the right-most position of a particle in generation $n$. As a byproduct, we also complete the LDP for the classical model, which complements the earlier work by Gantert and Höfelsauer (2018).
We consider a branching random walk on $\mathbb{R}$ with a killing barrier at zero. At criticality, the process becomes eventually extinct, and the total progeny $Z$ is therefore finite. We show that the tail distribution of $Z$ displays a typical behaviour in $(n\ln^2(n))^{-1}$, which confirms the prediction of Addario-Berry and Broutin.
In this paper, we first form a method to calculate the probability generating function of the total progeny of multitype branching process. As examples, we calculate probability generating function of the total progeny of the multitype branching processes within random walk which could stay at its position and (2-1) random walk. Consequently, we could give the probability generating functions and the distributions of the hitting time of corresponding random walks.
By extending the breadth first search algorithm to any d-type critical or subcritical irreducible branching forest, we show that such forests may be encoded through d independent, integer valued, d-dimensional random walks. An application of this coding together with a multivariate extension of the Ballot Theorem which is proved here, allow us to give an explicit form of the law of the total progeny, jointly with the number of subtrees of each type, in terms of the offspring distribution of the branching process. We then apply these results to some enumeration formulas of multitype forests wit…
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 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.
Consider biased random walks on two Galton-Watson trees without leaves having progeny distributions $P_1$ and $P_2$ (GW$(P_1)$ and GW$(P_2)$) where $P_1$ and $P_2$ are supported on positive integers and $P_1$ dominates $P_2$ stochastically. We prove that the speed of the walk on GW$(P_1)$ is bigger than the same on GW$(P_2)$ when the bias is larger than a threshold depending on $P_1$ and $P_2$. This partially answers a question raised by Ben Arous, Fribergh and Sidoravicius.
We study the extremes of branching random walks under the assumption that the underlying Galton-Watson tree has infinite progeny mean. It is assumed that the displacements are either regularly varying or they have lighter tails. In the regularly varying case, it is shown that the point process sequence of normalized extremes converges to a Poisson random measure. We study the asymptotics of the scaled position of the rightmost particle in the $n$-th generation when the tail of the displacement behaves like $\exp(-K(x))$, where either $K$ is a regularly varying function of index $r> 0$, or $K$ …
In this work, we consider a modification of time \emph{inhomogeneous} branching random walk, where the driving increment distribution changes over time macroscopically. Following Bandyopadhyay and Ghosh (2021), we give certain independent and identically distributed (i.i.d.) displacements to all the particles at the last generation. We call this process \emph{last progeny modified time inhomogeneous branching random walk (LPMTI-BRW)}. Under very minimal assumptions on the underlying point processes of the displacements, we show that the maximum displacement converges to a limit after only an a…
We present two iterative methods for computing the global and partial extinction probability vectors for Galton-Watson processes with countably infinitely many types. The probabilistic interpretation of these methods involves truncated Galton-Watson processes with finite sets of types and modified progeny generating functions. In addition, we discuss the connection of the convergence norm of the mean progeny matrix with extinction criteria. Finally, we give a sufficient condition for a population to become extinct almost surely even though its population size explodes on the average, which is …
We consider a class of multitype Galton-Watson branching processes with a countably infinite type set $\mathcal{X}_d$ whose mean progeny matrices have a block lower Hessenberg form. For these processes, the probability $\boldsymbol{q}(A)$ of extinction in subsets of types $A\subseteq \mathcal{X}_d$ may differ from the global extinction probability $\boldsymbol{q}$ and the partial extinction probability $\tilde{\boldsymbol{q}}$. After deriving partial and global extinction criteria, we develop conditions for $\boldsymbol{q}<\boldsymbol{q}(A)<\tilde{\boldsymbol{q}}$. We then present an iterative…
We derive an exact expression for the probability density function of the cascade size (total progeny) in a continuous state branching process when the generations are Gamma distributed. The distribution has application in the modelling of cascade processes such as landslides and electrical network failures.
We consider the critical branching processes in correlated random environment which is positively associated and study the probability of survival up to the n-th generation. Moreover, when the environment is given by fractional Brownian motion, we estimate also the tail of progeny as well as the tail of width.
The Galton--Watson process is the simplest example of a branching process. The relationship between the offspring distribution, and, when the extinction occurs almost surely, the distribution of the total progeny is well known. In this paper, we illustrate the relationship between these two distributions when we consider the large deviation rate function (provided by Cramér's theorem) for empirical means of i.i.d. random variables. We also consider the case with a random initial population. In the final part, we present large deviation results for sequences of estimators of the offspring mean …
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.
The lonely branching random walks on ${\mathbb Z}^d$ is an interacting particle system where each particle moves as an independent random walk and undergoes critical binary branching when it is alone. We show that if the symmetrized walk is recurrent, lonely branching random walks die out locally. Furthermore, the same result holds if additional branching is allowed when the walk is not alone.
We extend the theory of discrete capacity to critical branching random walk. We introduce branching capacity for any finite subset of $\Z^d, d\geq5$. Analogous to the regular discrete capacity, branching capacity is closely related to the asymptotics of the probability of visiting a fixed finite set by a critical branching random walk starting from a distant point and the conditional distribution of the hitting point.
We consider a branching system of random walk in random environment (in location) in $\mathbb{N}$. We will give the exact limit value of $\frac{M_{n}}{n}$, where $M_{n}$ denotes the minimal position of branching random walk at time $n$. A key step in the proof is to transfer our branching random walks in random environment (in location) to branching random walks in random environment (in time), by use of Bramson's "branching processes within a branching process" .
Branching-stable processes have recently appeared as counterparts of stable subordinators, when addition of real variables is replaced by branching mechanism for point processes. Here, we are interested in their domains of attraction and describe explicit conditions for a branching random walk to converge after a proper magnification to a branching-stable process. This contrasts with deep results that have been obtained during the last decade on the asymptotic behavior of branching random walks and which involve either shifting without rescaling, or demagnification.
We consider a class of branching processes with countably many types which we refer to as Lower Hessenberg branching processes. These are multitype Galton-Watson processes with typeset $\mathcal{X}=\{0,1,2,\dots\}$, in which individuals of type $i$ may give birth to offspring of type $j\leq i+1$ only. For this class of processes, we study the set $S$ of fixed points of the progeny generating function. In particular, we highlight the existence of a continuum of fixed points whose minimum is the global extinction probability vector $\boldsymbol{q}$ and whose maximum is the partial extinction pro…
For the critical branching random walk in $\mathbb{Z}^{4}$ with branching at the origin only we find the asymptotic behavior of the probability of the event that there are particles at the origin at moment $t\rightarrow \infty $ and prove a Yaglom type conditional limit theorem for the number of individuals at the origin given that there are particles at the origin.
We establish the almost sure validity of the multifractal formalism for R^d-valued branching random walks on the whole relative interior of the natural convex domain of study.
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.
Given a branching random walk on a graph, we consider two kinds of truncations: by inhibiting the reproduction outside a subset of vertices and by allowing at most $m$ particles per site. We investigate the convergence of weak and strong critical parameters of these truncated branching random walks to the analogous parameters of the original branching random walk. As a corollary, we apply our results to the study of the strong critical parameter of a branching random walk restricted to the cluster of a Bernoulli bond percolation.
It is well known that the behaviour of a branching process is completely described by the generating function of the offspring law and its fixed points. Branching random walks are a natural generalization of branching processes: a branching process can be seen as a one-dimensional branching random walk. We define a multidimensional generating function associated to a given branching random walk. The present paper investigates the similarities and the differences of the generating functions, their fixed points and the implications on the underlying stochastic process, between the one-dimensiona…
We consider the branching random walk drifting to $-\infty$ and we investigate large deviations-type estimates for the first passage time. We prove the corresponding law of large numbers and the central limit theorem.
In this paper, we study the critical branching random walk in the critical dimension, $Z^4$. We provide the asymptotics of the probability of visiting a fixed finite subset and the range of the critical branching random walk conditioned on the total number of offsprings. We also prove that conditioned on visiting, the first visiting point converges in distribution.
We study the branching random walk on weighted graphs; site-breeding and edge-breeding branching random walks on graphs are seen as particular cases. We describe the strong critical value in terms of a geometrical parameter of the graph. We characterize the weak critical value and relate it to another geometrical parameter. We prove that, at the strong critical value, the process dies out locally almost surely; while, at the weak critical value, global survival and global extinction are both possible.
The reproduction speed of a continuous-time branching random walk is proportional to a positive parameter $λ$. There is a threshold for $λ$, which is called $λ_w$, that separates almost sure global extinction from global survival. Analogously, there exists another threshold $λ_s$ below which any site is visited almost surely a finite number of times (i.e.~local extinction) while above it there is a positive probability of visiting every site infinitely many times. The local critical parameter $λ_s$ is completely understood and can be computed as a function of the reproduction rates. On the oth…
It is a common practice to describe branching random walks in terms of birth, death and walk of particles, which makes it easier to use them in different applications. The main results obtained for the models of symmetric continuous-time heavy-tailed branching random walks on a multidimensional lattice. We will be mainly interested in studying the problems related to the limiting behavior of branching random walks such as the existence of phase transitions under change of various parameters, the properties of the limiting distribution and the survival probability of a particle population. Emph…
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 branching random walks and contact processes on infinite, connected, locally finite graphs whose reproduction and infectivity rates across edges are inversely proportional to vertex degree. We show that when the ambient graph is a Galton-Watson tree then, in certain circumstances, the branching random walks and contact processes will have weak survival phases. We also provide bounds on critical values.
Consider a discrete-time one-dimensional supercritical branching random walk. We study the probability that there exists an infinite ray in the branching random walk that always lies above the line of slope $γ-ε$, where $γ$ denotes the asymptotic speed of the right-most position in the branching random walk. Under mild general assumptions upon the distribution of the branching random walk, we prove that when $ε\to 0$, the probability in question decays like $\exp\{- {β+ o(1)\over ε^{1/2}}\}$, where $β$ is a positive constant depending on the distribution of the branching random walk. In the sp…
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.
In this note, we make explicit the law of the renormalized supercritical branching random walk, giving credit to a conjecture formulated in a previous works of the authors for a continuous analog of the branching random walk. Also, in the case of a branching random walk on a homogeneous tree, we express the law of the corresponding limiting renormalized Gibbs measures, confirming, in this discrete model, conjectures formulated by physicists about the Poisson-Dirichlet nature of the jumps in the limit, and precising the conjecture by giving the spatial distribution of these jumps.
In this article, we study branching random walks on graphs modeling division-mutation processes inspired by adaptive immunity. We apply the theory of expander graphs on mutation rules in evolutionary processes and obtain estimates for the cover times of the branching random walks. This analysis reveals an unexpected saturation phenomenon : increasing the mutation rate above a certain threshold does not enhance the speed of state-space exploration.
We consider a supercritical symmetric continuous-time branching random walk on a multidimensional lattice with a finite number of particle generation sources of varying positive intensities without any restrictions on the variance of jumps of the underlying random walk. It is assumed that the spectrum of the evolution operator contains at least one positive eigenvalue. We prove that under these conditions the largest eigenvalue of the evolution operator is simple and determines the rate of exponential growth of particle quantities at every point on the lattice as well as on the lattice as a wh…
We consider the time evolution of a lattice branching random walk with local perturbations. Under certain conditions, we prove the Carleman type estimation for the moments of a particle subpopulation number and show the existence of a steady state.
We consider branching random walk in random environment (BRWRE) and prove the existence of deterministic subsequences along which their maximum, centered at its mean, is tight. This partially answers an open question in arXiv:1711.00852. The method of proof adapts an argument developed by Dekking and Host for branching random walks with bounded increments. The question of tightness without the need for subsequences remains open.
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.
We study weak and strong survival for branching random walks on multigraphs. We prove that, for a large class of multigraphs, weak survival is related to a geometrical parameter of the multigraph and that the existence of a pure weak phase is equivalent to nonamenability. Finally we study weak and strong critical behaviors of the branching random walk.
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 …
Foss and Zachary (2003) and Foss, Palmowski and Zachary (2005) studied the probability of achieving a receding boundary on a time interval of random length by a random walk with a heavy-tailed jump distribution. They have proposed and developed a new approach that allows to generalise results of Asmussen (1998) onto the case of arbitrary stopping times and a wide class of nonlinear boundaries, and to obtain uniform results over all stopping times. In this paper, we consider a class of branching random walks with fading branching and obtain results on the tail asymptotics for the maximum of a b…
In this paper, we study the probability of visiting a distant point $a\in \mathbb{Z}^4$ by critical branching random walk starting from the origin. We prove that this probability is bounded by $1/(|a|^2\log |a|)$ up to a constant.
In a seminal paper Biggins and Kyprianou \cite{BKy04} proved the existence of a non degenerate limit for the {\it Derivative martingale} of the branching random walk. As shown in \cite{Aid11} and \cite{Mad11}, this is an object of central importance in the study of the extremes of the branching random walk. In this paper we investigate the tail distribution of the limit of the {\it Derivative Martingale} by mean of the study of the global minimum of the branching random walk. This new approach leads us to extend the results of \cite{Gui90} and \cite{Bur09} under slighter assumptions.
