This paper presents some general formulas for random partitions of a finite set derived by Kingman's model of random sampling from an interval partition generated by subintervals whose lengths are the points of a Poisson point process. These lengths can be also interpreted as the jumps of a subordinator, that is an increasing process with stationary independent increments. Examples include the two-parameter family of Poisson-Dirichlet models derived from the Poisson process of jumps of a stable subordinator. Applications are made to the random partition generated by the lengths of excursions of a Brownian motion or Brownian bridge conditioned on its local time at zero.
We derive the class of normalized generalized Gamma processes from Poisson-Kingman models (Pitman, 2003) with tempered alfa-stable mixing distribution. Relying on this construction it can be shown that in Bayesian nonparametrics, results on quantities of statistical interest under those priors, like the analogous of the Blackwell-MacQueen prediction rules or the distribution of the number of distinct elements observed in a sample, arise as immediate consequences of Pitman's results.
Exchangeable sequences of random probability measures (partitions of mass) and their corresponding exchangeable bridges play an important role in a variety of areas in probability, statistics and related areas, including Bayesian statistics, physics, finance and machine learning. An area of theoretical as well as practical interest, is the study of coagulation and fragmentation operators on partitions of mass. In this regard, an interesting but formidable question is the identification of operators and distributional families on mass partitions that exhibit interesting duality relations. In th…
We consider Kingman's partition structures which are regenerative with respect to a general operation of random deletion of some part. Prototypes of this class are the Ewens partition structures which Kingman characterised by regeneration after deletion of a part chosen by size-biased sampling. We associate each regenerative partition structure with a corresponding regenerative composition structure, which (as we showed in a previous paper) can be associated in turn with a regenerative random subset of the positive halfline, that is the closed range of a subordinator. A general regenerative pa…
We consider both the Bolthausen-Sznitman and the Kingman coalescent restricted to the partitions of $\{1, \ldots, n\}.$ Spectral decompositions of the corresponding generators are derived. As an application we obtain a formula for the Green's functions and a short derivation of the well-known formula for the transition probabilities of the Bolthausen-Sznitman coalescent.
Multiple Poisson-Dirichlet diffusions on generalized Kingman simplices
National Group for Mathematical Analysis, Probability and Applications, INdAM（意大利国家数学分析、概率与应用小组，INdAM）；Stern School of Business, NYU Abu Dhabi（纽约大学阿布扎比分校斯特恩商学院）
Theory of Kingman's partition structures has two culminating points: the general paintbox representation, relating finite partitions to hypothetical infinite populations via a natural sampling procedure, known as Kingman's paintbox; a central example of the theory - the Ewens-Pitman two-parameter family of partitions. In these notes we further develop the theory by passing to structures enriched by the order on the collection of categories; extending the class of tractable models by exploring the idea of regeneration; analysing regenerative properties of the Ewens-Pitman partitions; studying a…
Consider the Markov process taking values in the partitions of N such that each pair of blocks merges at rate one, and each integer is eroded, i.e., becomes a singleton block, at rate d. This is a special case of exchangeable fragmentation-coalescence process called Kingman's coalescent with erosion. We provide a new construction of the stationary distribution of this process as a sample from a standard flow of bridges. This allows us to give a representation of the asymptotic frequencies of this stationary distribution in terms of a sequence of hierarchically independent diffusions. Moreover,…
Let $\mathbb{T}^d_N$, $d\ge 2$, be the discrete $d$-dimensional torus with $N^d$ points. Place a particle at each site of $\mathbb{T}^d_N$ and let them evolve as independent, nearest-neighbor, symmetric, continuous-time random walks. Each time two particles meet, they coalesce into one. Denote by $C_N$ the first time the set of particles is reduced to a singleton. Cox [6] proved the existence of a time-scale $θ_N$ for which $C_N/θ_N$ converges to the sum of independent exponential random variables. Denote by $Z^N_t$ the total number of particles at time $t$. We prove that the sequence of Marko…
Asymptotic behaviour of conditional $α$ diversity for the two-parameter Poisson-Dirichlet partition model and for the normalized generalized Gamma model has been recently investigated in Favaro et al. (2009, 2011) with a view to possible applications in Bayesian treatment of species richness estimation. Here we generalize those results to the larger class of mixed Poisson-Kingman species sampling models driven by the stable subordinator (Pitman, 2003).
The two parameter Poisson-Dirichlet distribution $PD(α,θ)$ is the distribution of an infinite dimensional random discrete probability. It is a generalization of Kingman's Poisson-Dirichlet distribution. The two parameter Dirichlet process $Π_{α,θ,ν_0}$ is the law of a pure atomic random measure with masses following the two parameter Poisson-Dirichlet distribution. In this article we focus on the construction and the properties of the infinite dimensional symmetric diffusion processes with respective symmetric measures $PD(α,θ)$ and $Π_{α,θ,ν_0}$. The methods used come from the theory of Diric…
Kingman derived the Ewens sampling formula for random partitions from the genealogy model defined by a Poisson process of mutations along lines of descent governed by a simple coalescent process. Möhle described the recursion which determines the generalization of the Ewens sampling formula when the lines of descent are governed by a coalescent with multiple collisions. In a recent work by Dong, Gnedin and Pitman, authors exploit an analogy with the theory of regenerative composition and partition structures, and provide various characterizations of the associated exchangeable random partition…
Petrov constructed a diffusion process in the Kingman simplex whose unique stationary distribution is the two-parameter Poisson-Dirichlet distribution of Pitman and Yor. We show that the subset of the simplex comprising vectors whose coordinates do not sum to 1 acts like an entrance boundary for the diffusion.
Kingman derived the Ewens sampling formula for random partitions describing the genetic variation in a neutral mutation model defined by a Poisson process of mutations along lines of descent governed by a simple coalescent process, and observed that similar methods could be applied to more complex models. M{ö}hle described the recursion which determines the generalization of the Ewens sampling formula in the situation when the lines of descent are governed by a $Λ$-coalescent, which allows multiple mergers. Here we show that the basic integral representation of transition rates for the $Λ$-coa…
A simple explicit construction is provided of a partition-valued fragmentation process whose distribution on partitions of $[n]=\{1,...,n\}$ at time $θ\ge 0$ is governed by the Ewens sampling formula with parameter $θ$. These partition-valued processes are exchangeable and consistent, as $n$ varies. They can be derived by uniform sampling from a corresponding mass fragmentation process defined by cutting a unit interval at the points of a Poisson process with intensity $θx^{-1} \diff x$ on ${\mathbb R}_+$, arranged to be intensifying as $θ$ increases.
When $S=(S_t)_{t\ge 0}$ is an $α$-stable subordinator, the sequence of ordered jumps of $S$, up till time $1$, omitting the $r$ largest of them, and taken as proportions of their sum $^{(r)}S_t$, defines a 2-parameter distribution on the infinite dimensional simplex, $\nabla_{\infty}$, which we call the $\mathrm{PD}_α^{(r)}$ distribution. When $r=0$ it reduces to the $\mathrm{PD}_α$ distribution introduced by Kingman in 1975. We observe a serendipitous connection between $\mathrm{PD}_α^{(r)}$ and the negative binomial point process of Gregoire (1984), which we exploit to analyse in detail a si…
A new class of random composition structures (the ordered analog of Kingman's partition structures) is defined by a regenerative description of component sizes. Each regenerative composition structure is represented by a process of random sampling of points from an exponential distribution on the positive halfline, and separating the points into clusters by an independent regenerative random set. Examples are composition structures derived from residual allocation models, including one associated with the Ewens sampling formula, and composition structures derived from the zero set of a Brownia…
Extending the rigorous presentation of the classical umbral calculus given by Rota and Taylor in 1994, the so-called partition polynomials are interpreted with the aim to point out the umbral nature of the Poisson random variables. Among the new umbrae introduced, the main tool is the partition umbra that leads also to a simple expression of the functional composition of the exponential power series. Moreover a new short proof of the Lagrange inversion formula is given.
The Ewens-Pitman sampling model (EP-SM) is a distribution for random partitions of the set $\{1,\ldots,n\}$, with $n\in\mathbb{N}$, which is index by real parameters $α$ and $θ$ such that either $α\in[0,1)$ and $θ>-α$, or $α<0$ and $θ=-mα$ for some $m\in\mathbb{N}$. For $α=0$ the EP-SM reduces to the celebrated Ewens sampling model (E-SM), which admits a well-known compound Poisson perspective in terms of the log-series compound Poisson sampling model (LS-CPSM). In this paper, we consider a generalization of the LS-CPSM, which is referred to as the negative Binomial compound Poisson sampling m…
Plant differently colored points in the plane, then let random points ("Poisson rain") fall, and give each new point the color of the nearest existing point. Previous investigation and simulations strongly suggest that the colored regions converge (in some sense) to a random partition of the plane. We prove a weak version of this, showing that normalized empirical measures converge to Lebesgue measures on a random partition into measurable sets. Topological properties remain an open problem. In the course of the proof, which heavily exploits time-reversals, we encounter a novel self-similar pr…
We compute the moment of order n of the Poisson stochastic integral of a random process u over a metric space X as a sum that runs over all partitions of {1,...,n} and involves the addition of points to Poisson configurations. This formula recovers known results in case u is a deterministic function on X.
The Poisson-Kingman distributions, $\mathrm{PK}(ρ)$, on the infinite simplex, can be constructed from a Poisson point process having intensity density $ρ$ or by taking the ranked jumps up till a specified time of a subordinator with Lévy density $ρ$, as proportions of the subordinator. As a natural extension, we replace the Poisson point process with a negative binomial point process having parameter $r>0$ and Lévy density $ρ$, thereby defining a new class $\mathrm{PK}^{(r)}(ρ)$ of distributions on the infinite simplex. The new class contains the two-parameter generalisation $\mathrm{PD}(α, θ)…
This article discusses the usage of a partiton based Fubini calculus for Poisson processes. The approach is an amplification of Bayesian techniques developed in Lo and Weng for gamma/Dirichlet processes. Applications to models are considered which all fall within an inhomogeneous spatial extension of the size biased framework used in Perman, Pitman and Yor. Among some of the results; an explicit partition based calculus is then developed for such models, which also includes a series of important exponential change of measure formula. These results are applied to obtain results for Levy-Cox mod…
We study random families of subsets of $\mathbb{N}$ that are similar to exchangeable random partitions, but do not require constituent sets to be disjoint: Each element of ${\mathbb{N}}$ may be contained in multiple subsets. One class of such objects, known as Indian buffet processes, has become a popular tool in machine learning. Based on an equivalence between Indian buffet and scale-invariant Poisson processes, we identify a random scaling variable whose role is similar to that played in exchangeable partition models by the total mass of a random measure. Analogous to the construction of ex…
We construct a pair of related diffusions on a space of interval partitions of the unit interval $[0,1]$ that are stationary with the Poisson-Dirichlet laws with parameters (1/2,0) and (1/2,1/2) respectively. These are two particular cases of a general construction of such processes obtained by decorating the jumps of a spectrally positive Lévy process with independent squared Bessel excursions. The processes of ranked interval lengths of our partitions are members of a two parameter family of diffusions introduced by Ethier and Kurtz (1981) and Petrov (2009). The latter diffusions are continu…
Suppose some random resource (energy, mass or space) $χ\geq 0$ is to be shared at random between (possibly infinitely many) species (atoms or fragments). Assume ${\Bbb E}χ=θ<\infty $ and suppose the amount of the individual share is necessarily bounded from above by 1. This random partitioning model can naturally be identified with the study of infinitely divisible random variables with Lévy measure concentrated on the interval% $.$ Special emphasis is put on these special partitioning models in the Poisson-Kingman class. The masses attached to the atoms of such partitions are sorted in decrea…
Gibbs partitions of the integers generated by stable subordinators of index $α\in(0,1)$ form remarkable classes of random partitions where in principle much is known about their properties, including practically effortless obtainment of otherwise complex asymptotic results potentially relevant to applications in general combinatorial stochastic processes, random tree/graph growth models and Bayesian statistics. This class includes the well-known models based on the two-parameter Poisson-Dirichlet distribution which forms the bulk of explicit applications. This work continues efforts to provide…
We introduce diffusions on a space of interval partitions of the unit interval that are stationary with the Poisson-Dirichlet laws with parameters $(α,0)$ and $(α,α)$. The construction has two steps. The first is a general construction of interval partition processes obtained previously, by decorating the jumps of a Lévy process with independent excursions. Here, we focus on the second step, which requires explicit transition kernels and what we call pseudo-stationarity. This allows us to study processes obtained from the original construction via scaling and time-change. In a sequel paper, we…
When a beneficial mutation occurs in a population, the new, favored allele may spread to the entire population. This process is known as a selective sweep. Suppose we sample $n$ individuals at the end of a selective sweep. If we focus on a site on the chromosome that is close to the location of the beneficial mutation, then many of the lineages will likely be descended from the individual that had the beneficial mutation, while others will be descended from a different individual because of recombination between the two sites. We introduce two approximations for the effect of a selective sweep…
Consider a random permutation of $\{1, \ldots, \lfloor n^{t_2}\rfloor\}$ drawn according to the Ewens measure with parameter $t_1$ and let $K(n, t)$ denote the number of its cycles, where $t\equiv (t_1, t_2)\in\mathbb [0, 1]^2$. Next, consider a sample drawn from a large, neutral population of haploid individuals subject to mutation under the infinitely many sites model of Kimura whose genealogy is governed by Kingman's coalescent. Let $S(n, t)$ count the number of segregating sites in a sample of size $\lfloor n^{t_2}\rfloor$ when mutations arrive at rate $t_1/2$. We show that $K(n, (t_1/\log…
In population genetic studies, the allele frequency spectrum (AFS) efficiently summarizes genome-wide polymorphism data and shapes a variety of allele frequency-based summary statistics. While existing theory typically features equilibrium conditions, emerging methodology requires an analytical understanding of the build-up of the allele frequencies over time. In this work, we use the framework of Poisson random fields to derive new representations of the non-equilibrium AFS for the case of a Wright-Fisher population model with selection. In our approach, the AFS is a scaling-limit of the expe…
The two-parameter Poisson--Dirichlet diffusion, introduced in 2009 by Petrov, extends the infinitely-many-neutral-alleles diffusion model, related to Kingman's one-parameter Poisson--Dirichlet distribution and to certain Fleming--Viot processes. The additional parameter has been shown to regulate the clustering structure of the population, but is yet to be fully understood in the way it governs the reproductive process. Here we shed some light on these dynamics by formulating a $K$-allele Wright--Fisher model for a population of size $N$, involving a uniform mutation pattern and a specific sta…
We consider free multiple stochastic measures in the combinatorial framework of the lattice of all diagonals of an n-dimensional space. In this free case, one can restrict the analysis to only the noncrossing diagonals. We give definitions of what free multiple stochastic measures are, and calculate them for the free Poisson and free compound Poisson processes. We also derive general combinatorial Itô-type relationships between free stochastic measures of different orders. These allow us to calculate, for example, free Poisson-Charlier polynomials, which are the orthogonal polynomials with res…
This article offers a simplified approach to the distribution theory of randomly weighted averages or $P$-means $M_P(X):= \sum_{j} X_j P_j$, for a sequence of i.i.d.random variables $X, X_1, X_2, \ldots$, and independent random weights $P:= (P_j)$ with $P_j \ge 0$ and $\sum_{j} P_j = 1$. The collection of distributions of $M_P(X)$, indexed by distributions of $X$, is shown to encode Kingman's partition structure derived from $P$. For instance, if $X_p$ has Bernoulli$(p)$ distribution on $\{0,1\}$, the $n$th moment of $M_P(X_p)$ is a polynomial function of $p$ which equals the probability gener…
The randomized $k$-number partitioning problem is the task to distribute $N$ i.i.d. random variables into $k$ groups in such a way that the sums of the variables in each group are as similar as possible. The restricted $k$-partitioning problem refers to the case where the number of elements in each group is fixed to $N/k$. In the case $k=2$ it has been shown that the properly rescaled differences of the two sums in the close to optimal partitions converge to a Poisson point process, as if they were independent random variables. We generalize this result to the case $k>2$ in the restricted prob…
We consider uniformly random set partitions of size $n$ with exactly $k$ blocks, and uniformly random permutations of size $n$ with exactly $k$ cycles, under the regime where $n-k \sim t\sqrt{n}$, $t>0$. In this regime, there is a simple approximation for the entire process of component counts; in particular, the number of components of size 3 converges in distribution to Poisson with mean $\frac{2}{3}t^2$ for set partitions and mean $\frac{4}{3}t^2$ for permutations, and with high probability all other components have size one or two. These approximations are proved, with preasymptotic error …
Given a homogeneous Poisson process on ${\mathbb{R}}^d$ with intensity $λ$, we prove that it is possible to partition the points into two sets, as a deterministic function of the process, and in an isometry-equivariant way, so that each set of points forms a homogeneous Poisson process, with any given pair of intensities summing to $λ$. In particular, this answers a question of Ball [Electron. Commun. Probab. 10 (2005) 60--69], who proved that in $d=1$, the Poisson points may be similarly partitioned (via a translation-equivariant function) so that one set forms a Poisson process of lower inte…
We introduce and study a noncommutative two-parameter family of noncommutative Brownian motions in the free Fock space. They are associated with Kesten laws and give a continuous interpolation between Brownian motions in free probability and monotone probability. The combinatorics of our model is based on ordered non-crossing partitions, in which to each such partition $P$ we assign a weight depending on the numbers of disorders and orders in $P$ related to the natural partial order on the set of blocks of $P$ implemented by the relation of being inner or outer. In particular, we obtain a simp…
We prove a long-standing conjecture which characterises the Ewens-Pitman two-parameter family of exchangeable random partitions, plus a short list of limit and exceptional cases, by the following property: for each $n = 2,3, >...$, if one of $n$ individuals is chosen uniformly at random, independently of the random partition $π_n$ of these individuals into various types, and all individuals of the same type as the chosen individual are deleted, then for each $r > 0$, given that $r$ individuals remain, these individuals are partitioned according to $π_r'$ for some sequence of random partitions …
The objects of our interest are the so-called $A$-permutations, which are permutations whose cycle length lie in a fixed set $A$. They have been extensively studied with respect to the uniform or the Ewens measure. In this paper, we extend some classical results to a more general weighted probability measure which is a natural extension of the Ewens measure and which in particular allows to consider sets $A_n$ depending on the degree $n$ of the permutation. By means of complex analysis arguments and under reasonable conditions on generating functions we study the asymptotic behaviour of classi…
We study measures on random partitions, arising from condensing stochastic particle systems with stationary product distributions. We provide fairly general conditions on the stationary weights, which lead to Poisson-Dirichlet statistics of the condensed phase in the thermodynamic limit. The Poisson-Dirichlet distribution is known to be the unique reversible measure of split-merge dynamics for random partitions, which we use to characterize the limit law. We also establish concentration results for the macroscopic phase, using size-biased sampling techniques and the equivalence of ensembles to…
We study the length statistics of the components of a random multicurve on a surface of genus $g \geq 2$. For each fixed genus, the existence of such statistics follows from the work of M.~Mirzakhani, F.~Arana-Herrera and M.~Liu. We prove that as the genus $g$ tends to infinity the statistics converge in law to the Poisson--Dirichlet distribution of parameter $θ=1/2$. In particular, as the genus tends to infinity the mean length of the three longest components converge respectively to $75.8\%$, $17.1\%$ and $4.9\%$ of the total length.
The hitting partitions are random partitions that arise from the investigation of so-called hitting scenarios of max-infinitely-divisible (max-i.d.)~distributions. We study a class of max-i.d.~laws with exchangeable hitting partitions obtained by size-biased sampling from the jumps of a Lévy subordinator. We obtain explicit formulae for the distributions of these partitions in the case of the multivariate $α$-logistic and another family of exchangeable max-i.d.\ distributions. Specifically, the hitting partitions for these two cases are shown to coincide with the well-known Poisson--Dirichlet …
Consider several independent Poisson point processes on R^d, each with a different colour and perhaps a different intensity, and suppose we are given a set of allowed family types, each of which is a multiset of colours such as red-blue or red-red-green. We study translation-invariant schemes for partitioning the points into families of allowed types. This generalizes the 1-colour and 2-colour matching schemes studied previously (where the sets of allowed family types are the singletons {red-red} and {red-blue} respectively). We characterize when such a scheme exists, as well as the optimal ta…
Given a homogenous Poisson point process in the plane, we prove that it is possible to partition the plane into bounded connected cells of equal volume, in a translation-invariant way, with each point of the process contained in exactly one cell. Moreover, the diameter $D$ of the cell containing the origin satisfies the essentially optimal tail bound $P(D>r)<c/r$. We give two variants of the construction. The first has the curious property that any two cells are at positive distance from each other. In the second, any bounded region of the plane intersects only finitely many cells almost surel…
We consider a spatial branching process with emigration in which children either remain at the same site as their parents or migrate to new locations and then found their own colonies. We are interested in asymptotics of the partition of the total population into colonies for large populations with rare migrations. Under appropriate regimes, we establish weak convergence of the rescaled partition to some random measure that is constructed from the restriction of a Poisson point measure to a certain random region, and whose cumulant solves a simple integral equation.
We show that the symplectic and orthogonal character analogues of Okounkov's Schur measure (on integer partitions) are determinantal, with explicit correlation kernels. We apply this to prove certain Borodin-Okounkov-Gessel-type results concerning Toeplitz+Hankel and Fredholm determinants; a Szegő-type limit theorem; an edge Baik-Deift-Johansson-type asymptotical result for certain symplectic and orthogonal analogues of the poissonized Plancherel measure; and a similar result for actual poissonized Plancherel measures supported on "almost symmetric" partitions.
In \cite{Bia97} Biane proposed a new statistic on set partitions which he called \emph{restricted crossings}. In a series of papers \cite{Ans01,Ans04,Ans04b,Ans05} Anshelevich showed that this statistic is an essential tool to investigate stochastic processes on $q$-Fock space. In particular, Anshelevich constructed operators whose moments count restricted crossings and used these operators to develop a beautiful theory of noncommutative $q$-Lévy processes. In the present paper following Anshelevich we define gauge operators on $(α,q)$-Fock and cumulants which are governed by statistics on par…
In this paper, we study the asymptotic behavior of the first, second, and so on rows of stochastically decaying partitions. We establish that, with appropriate scaling in time and length, the sequence of rows converges to the Airy$_2$ line ensemble. This result was first established, in a more general setting, by Borodin and Olshanski, who relied on the determinantal structure of the Poissonized correlation functions. Our argument is based on a different, combinatorial approach, developed by Okounkov. This approach may be useful in other problems in which no determinantal structure is availabl…
Consider a population of individuals belonging to an infinity number of types, and assume that type proportions follow the two-parameter Poisson-Dirichlet distribution. A sample of size n is selected from the population. The total number of different types and the number of types appearing in the sample with a fixed frequency are important statistics. In this paper we establish the moderate deviation principles for these quantities. The corresponding rate functions are explicitly identified, which help revealing a critical scale and understanding the exact role of the parameters. Conditional, …
In this paper we study random partitions of 1,...n, where every cluster of size j can be in any of w\_j possible internal states. The Gibbs (n,k,w) distribution is obtained by sampling uniformly among such partitions with k clusters. We provide conditions on the weight sequence w allowing construction of a partition valued random process where at step k the state has the Gibbs (n,k,w) distribution, so the partition is subject to irreversible fragmentation as time evolves. For a particular one-parameter family of weight sequences w\_j, the time-reversed process is the discrete Marcus-Lushnikov …
In this paper, we construct a new family of random series defined on $\R^D$, indexed by one scaling parameter and two Hurst-like exponents. The model is close to Takagi-Knopp functions, save for the fact that the underlying partitions of $\R^D$ are not the usual dyadic meshes but random Voronoi tessellations generated by Poisson point processes. This approach leads us to a continuous function whose random graph is shown to be fractal with explicit and equal box and Hausdorff dimensions. The proof of this main result is based on several new distributional properties of the Poisson-Voronoi tesse…
