We consider a one-dimensional simple random walk killed by quenched soft obstacles. The position of the obstacles is drawn according to a renewal process with a power-law increment distribution. In a previous work, we computed the large-time asymptotics of the quenched survival probability. In the present work we continue our study by describing the behaviour of the random walk conditioned to survive. We prove that with large probability, the walk quickly reaches a unique time-dependent optimal gap that is free from obstacle and gets localized there. We actually establish a dichotomy. If the renewal tail exponent is smaller than one then the walk hits the optimal gap and spends all of its remaining time inside, up to finitely many visits to the bottom of the gap. If the renewal tail exponent is larger than one then the random walk spends most of its time inside of the optimal gap but also performs short outward excursions, for which we provide matching upper and lower bounds on their length and cardinality. Our key tools include a Markov renewal interpretation of the survival probability as well as various comparison arguments for obstacle environments. Our results may also be rephrased in terms of localization properties for a directed polymer among multiple repulsive interfaces.
We construct a renewal structure for random walks on surface groups. The renewal times are defined as times when the random walks enters a particular type of a cone and never leaves it again. As a consequence, the trajectory of the random walk can be expressed as an "aligned union" of i.i.d. trajectories between the renewal times. Once having established this renewal structure, we prove a central limit theorem for the distance to the origin under exponential moment conditions. Analyticity of the speed and of the asymptotic variance are natural consequences of our approach. Furthermore, our met…
We study tails of the supremum of a perturbed random walk under regime which was not yet considered in the literature. Our approach is based on a new renewal theorem, which is of independent interest. We obtain first and second order asymptotics of the solution to renewal equation under weak assumptions and we apply these results to obtain first and second order asymptotics of the tail of the supremum of a perturbed random walk.
We study a simple random walk on Z^2 with constraints on the axis. Motivation comes from physics when particles (a gas for example, see [Dal88]) are submitted to a local field. In our case we assume that the particle evolves freely in the cones but when touching the axis a force pushes it back progressively to the origin. The main result proves that this force can be parametrized in such a way that a renewal structure appears in the trajectory of the random walk. This implies the existence of an ergodic result for the parts of the trajectory restricted to the axis.
Let $(ξ_k,η_k)_{k\in\mathbb{N}}$ be independent identically distributed random vectors with arbitrarily dependent positive components. We call a (globally) perturbed random walk a random sequence $(T_k)_{k\in\mathbb{N}}$ defined by $T_k:=ξ_1+\cdots+ξ_{k-1}+η_k$ for $k\in\mathbb{N}$. Further, by an iterated perturbed random walk is meant the sequence of point processes defining the birth times of individuals in subsequent generations of a general branching process provided that the birth times of the first generation individuals are given by a perturbed random walk. For $j\in\mathbb{N}$ and $t\…
We study a random walk $\mathbf{S}_n$ on $\mathbb{Z}^d$ ($d\geq 1$), in the domain of attraction of an operator-stable distribution with index $\boldsymbolα=(α_1,\ldots,α_d) \in (0,2]^d$: in particular, we allow the scalings to be different along the different coordinates. We prove a strong renewal theorem, $i.e.$ a sharp asymptotic of the Green function $G(\mathbf{0},\mathbf{x})$ as $\|\mathbf{x}\|\to +\infty$, along the "favorite direction or scaling": (i) if $\sum_{i=1}^d α_i^{-1} < 2$ (reminiscent of Garsia-Lamperti's condition when $d=1$ [Comm. Math. Helv. $\mathbf{37}$, 1962]); (ii) if a…
We establish two different, but related results for random walks in the domain of attraction of a stable law of index $α$. The first result is a local large deviation upper bound, valid for $α\in (0,1) \cup (1,2)$, which improves on the classical Gnedenko and Stone local limit theorems. The second result, valid for $α\in (0,1)$, is the derivation of necessary and sufficient conditions for the random walk to satisfy the strong renewal theorem (SRT). This solves a long standing problem, which dates back to the 1962 paper of Garsia and Lamperti [Comm. Math. Helv.] for renewal processes (i.e. rand…
We establish an exponential error term for the renewal theorem in the context of products of random matrices, which is surprising compared with classical abelian cases. A key tool is the Fourier decay of the Furstenberg measures on the projective spaces, which is a higher dimensional generalization of a recent work of Bourgain-Dyatlov.
We consider a class of discrete-time random walks with directed unit steps on the integer line. The direction of the steps is reversed at the time instants of events in a discrete-time renewal process and is maintained at uneventful time instants. This model represents a discrete-time semi-Markovian generalization of the telegraph process. We derive exact formulae for the propagator using generating functions. We prove that for geometrically distributed waiting times in the diffusive limit, this walk converges to the classical telegraph process. We consider the large-time asymptotics of the ex…
We consider real random walks with positive increments (renewal processes) in the domain of attraction of a stable law with index $α\in (0,1)$. The famous local renewal theorem of Garsia and Lamperti, also called strong renewal theorem, is known to hold in complete generality only for $α> \frac{1}{2}$. Understanding when the strong renewal theorem holds for $α\le \frac{1}{2}$ is a long-standing problem, with sufficient conditions given by Williamson, Doney and Chi. In this paper we give a complete solution, providing explicit necessary and sufficient conditions (an analogous result has been in…
The probability distribution of the longest interval between two zeros of a simple random walk starting and ending at the origin, and of its continuum limit, the Brownian bridge, was analysed in the past by Rosén and Wendel, then extended by the latter to stable processes. We recover and extend these results using simple concepts of renewal theory, which allows to revisit past or recent works of the physics literature.
Let $(ξ_k,η_k)_{k\in\mathbb{N}}$ be independent identically distributed random vectors with arbitrarily dependent positive components. We call a (globally) perturbed random walk a random sequence $T:=(T_k)_{k\in\mathbb{N}}$ defined by $T_k:=ξ_1+\ldots+ξ_{k-1}+η_k$ for $k\in\mathbb{N}$. Consider a general branching process generated by $T$ and denote by $N_j(t)$ the number of the $j$th generation individuals with birth times $\leq t$. We treat early generations, that is, fixed generations $j$ which do not depend on $t$. In this setting we prove counterparts for $\mathbb{E}N_j$ of the Blackwell …
We show that for a weakly dense subset of the domain of attraction of a positive stable random variable of index $0<α<1$($DOA\left(α\right))$ the functional stable convergence is a time-changed renewal convergence of distribution of finite mean. Applied to Continuous Time Random Walk(CTRW) á la Montroll and Wiess we show that CTRW with renewal times in a weakly dense set of $DOA\left(α\right)$ can be realized as random walk in a random environment. We find the quenched limit and give a bound on the error of the approximation.
We consider a one-dimensional simple random walk surviving among a field of static soft traps : each time it meets a trap the walk is killed with probability 1--e --$β$ , where $β$ is a positive and fixed parameter. The positions of the traps are sampled independently from the walk and according to a renewal process. The increments between consecutive traps, or gaps, are assumed to have a power-law decaying tail with exponent $γ$ > 0. We prove convergence in law for the properly rescaled logarithm of the quenched survival probability as time goes to infinity. The normalization exponent is $γ$/…
We investigate harmonic functions and the convergence of the sequence of ratios $(P_x(τ_\vartheta {>} n)/P_e(τ_\vartheta {>} n))$ for a random walk on a countable group killed up on the time $τ_\vartheta$ of the first exit from some semi-group with an identity element $e$. Several results of classical renewal theory for one dimensional random walk killed at the first exit from the positive half-line are extended to a multi-dimensional setting. For this purpose, an analogue of the ladder height process and the corresponding renewal function $V$ are introduced. The results are applied to multidi…
Evanescent random walker on networks: Hitting times, budget renewal, and survival dynamics
Sorbonne Université, CNRS, Institut Jean Le Rond d’Alembert（索邦大学，法国国家科学研究中心，让·勒朗·达朗贝尔研究所）；Departamento de Física, Universidad Nacional de Colombia（哥伦比亚国立大学生物物理系）
We consider random walks perturbed at zero which behave like (possibly different) random walks with i.i.d. increments on each half lines and restarts at $0$ whenever they cross that point. We show that the perturbed random walk, after being rescaled in a proper way, converges to a skew Brownian motion whose parameter is defined by renewal functions of the simple random walks and the transition probabilities from $0$.
Place an obstacle with probability $1-p$ independently at each vertex of $\mathbb Z^d$ and consider a simple symmetric random walk that is killed upon hitting one of the obstacles. For $d \geq 2$ and $p$ strictly above the critical threshold for site percolation, we condition on the environment such that the origin is contained in an infinite connected component free of obstacles. It has previously been shown that with high probability, the random walk conditioned on survival up to time $n$ will be localized in a ball of volume asymptotically $d\log_{1/p}n$. In this work, we prove that this ba…
We prove that the speed of a $λ$-biased random walk on a supercritical Galton-Watson tree is differentiable for $λ$ such that the walk is ballistic and obeys a central limit theorem, and give an expression of the derivative using a certain $2$-dimensional Gaussian random variable. The proof heavily uses the renewal structure of Galton-Watson trees that was introduced by Lyons-Pemantle-Peres.
The goal of these notes is to fill some gaps in the literature about random walks in the Cauchy domain of attraction, which has been in many cases left aside because of its additional technical difficulties. We prove here several results in that case: a Fuk-Nagaev inequality and a local version of it ; a large deviation theorem ; two types of local large deviation theorems. We also derive two important applications of these results: a sharp estimate of the tail of the first ladder epochs, and renewal theorems -- extending standard renewal theorems to the case of random walks. Most of our techn…
Considering homogeneous and oscillating random walks on the integers, we simplify classical works on recurrence of Spitzer and Kemperman, respectively. Some links with renewal theory are discussed.
We consider the process $\{x-N(t):t\geq 0\}$, where $x\in\mathbb{R}_+$ and $\{N(t):t\geq 0\}$ is a renewal process with light-tailed distributed holding times. We are interested in the joint distribution of $(τ(x),A(x))$ where $τ(x)$ is the first-passage time of $\{x-N(t):t\geq 0\}$ to reach zero or a negative value, and $A(x):=\int_0^{τ(x)}(x-N(t))dt$ is the corresponding first-passage (positive) area swept out by the process $\{x-N(t):t\geq 0\}$. We remark that we can define the sequence $\{(τ(n),A(n)):n\geq 1\}$ by referring to the concept of integrated random walk. Our aim is to prove asym…
Place an obstacle with probability $1-p$ independently at each vertex of $\mathbb Z^d$, and run a simple random walk until hitting one of the obstacles. For $d\geq 2$ and $p$ strictly above the critical threshold for site percolation, we condition on the environment where the origin is contained in an infinite connected component free of obstacles, and we show that the following \emph{path localization} holds for environments with probability tending to 1 as $n\to \infty$: conditioned on survival up to time $n$ we have that ever since $o(n)$ steps the simple random walk is localized in a regio…
We prove that the speed of $λ$-biased random walks on a supercritical Galton-Watson tree without leaves is differentiable when $λ\in(0,1)$, and give an expression of the derivative using a certain 2-dimensional Gaussian random variable. The proof heavily uses the renewal structure of Galton-Watson trees that was introduced by Lyons-Pemantle-Peres.
Place an obstacle with probability $1-p$ independently at each vertex of $\mathbb Z^d$, and run a simple random walk until hitting one of the obstacles. For $d\geq 2$ and $p$ strictly above the critical threshold for site percolation, we condition on the environment where the origin is contained in an infinite connected component free of obstacles, and we show that for environments with probability tending to one as $n\to \infty$ there exists a unique discrete Euclidean ball of volume $d \log_{1/p} n$ asymptotically such that the following holds: conditioned on survival up to time $n$ we have …
We consider a discrete time simple symmetric random walk among Bernoulli obstacles on $\mathbb{Z}^d$, $d\geq 2$, where the walk is killed when it hits an obstacle. It is known that conditioned on survival up to time $N$, the random walk range is asymptotically contained in a ball of radius $\varrho_N=C N^{1/(d+2)}$ for any $d\geq 2$. For $d=2$, it is also known that the range asymptotically contains a ball of radius $(1-ε)\varrho_N$ for any $ε>0$, while the case $d\geq 3$ remains open. We complete the picture by showing that for any $d\geq 2$, the random walk range asymptotically contains a ba…
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…
Renewal processes are zero-dimensional processes defined by independent intervals of time between zero crossings of a random walker. We subject renewal processes them to stochastic resetting by setting the position of the random walker to the origin at Poisson-distributed time with rate $r$. We introduce an additional parameter, the probability $β$ of keeping the sign state of the system at resetting time. Moreover, we introduce a trap at the origin, which absorbs the process with a fixed probability at each zero crossing. We obtain the mean lifetime of the process in closed form. For time int…
We introduce a new class of asymmetric random walks on the one-dimensional infinite lattice. In this walk the direction of the jumps (positive or negative) is determined by a discrete-time renewal process which is independent of the jumps. We call this discrete-time counting process the `it generator process' of the walk. We refer the so defined walk to as `Asymmetric Discrete-Time Random Walk' (ADTRW). We highlight connections of the waiting-time density generating functions with Bell polynomials. We derive the discrete-time renewal equations governing the time-evolution of the ADTRW and anal…
Let $F\{dx\}$ be a relatively stable probability distribution on the whole real line and $S_n$ the random walk started at the origin with step distribution $F$. We obtain an exact asymptotic form of the Green measure $U\{x+dy\}= \sum_{n=0}^\infty P[S_n-x \in dy]$ as $x\to \infty$ when $S_n$ is transient and $S_n\to \infty$ in probability. If $F$ is concentrated on $[0,\infty)$, it is relatively stable if and only if $\ell(x) :=\int_0^x F\{(t,\infty)\}dt$ is slowly varying at infinity; our result entails that if $F$ is non-arithmetic and relatively stable, then $\lim_{x\to\infty}\, \ell(x)U\{[x…
Let $η^*_n$ denote the maximum, at time $n$, of a nonlattice one-dimensional branching random walk $η_n$ possessing (enough) exponential moments. In a seminal paper, Aidekon demonstrated convergence of $η^*_n$ in law, after recentering, and gave a representation of the limit. We give here a shorter proof of this convergence by employing reasoning motivated by Bramson, Ding and Zeitouni. Instead of spine methods and a careful analysis of the renewal measure for killed random walks, our approach employs a modified version of the second moment method that may be of independent interest.
In this paper, we study the scaling limit of a class of random walks which behave like simple random walks outside of a bounded region around the origin and which are subject to a partial reflection near the origin. If the probability of crossing the barrier scales as $ 1/\sqrt{n} $ as we rescale space by $ \sqrt{n} $ and time by $ n $, we obtain a non trivial scaling limit which behaves like reflected Brownian motion until its local time at the origin reaches an independent exponential variable. It then follows reflected Brownian motion on the other side of the origin until its local time at …
We study the evolution of a random walker on a conservative dynamic random environment composed of independent particles performing simple symmetric random walks, generalizing results of [16] to higher dimensions and more general transition kernels without the assumption of uniform ellipticity or nearest-neighbour jumps. Specifically, we obtain a strong law of large numbers, a functional central limit theorem and large deviation estimates for the position of the random walker under the annealed law in a high density regime. The main obstacle is the intrinsic lack of monotonicity in higher-dime…
We investigate weak convergence of finite-dimensional distributions of a renewal shot noise process $(Y(t))_{t\geq 0}$ with deterministic response function $h$ and the shots occurring at the times $0 = S_0 < S_1 < S_2<\ldots$, where $(S_n)$ is a random walk with i.i.d.\ jumps. There has been an outbreak of recent activity around this topic. We are interested in one out of few cases which remained open: $h$ is regularly varying at $\infty$ of index $-1/2$ and the integral of $h^2$ is infinite. Assuming that $S_1$ has a moment of order $r>2$ we use a strong approximation argument to show that th…
Using renewal times and Girsanov's transform, we prove that the speed of the excited random walk is infinitely differentiable with respect to the bias parameter in $(0,1)$ for the dimension $d\ge 2$. At the critical point $0$, using a special method, we also prove that the speed is differentiable and the derivative is positive for every dimension $2\leq d\neq 3.$ However, this is not enough to imply that the speed is increasing in a neighborhood of $0.$ It still remains to prove the derivative is continuous at $0$. Moreover, this paper gives some results of monotonicity for $m-$excited random …
