We investigate the "hot--spots" property for the survival time probability of Brownian motion with killing and reflection in planar convex domains whose boundary consists of two curves, one of which is an arc of a circle, intersecting at acute angles. This leads to the "hot--spots" property for the mixed Dirichlet--Neumann eigenvalue problem in the domain with Neumann conditions on one of the curves and Dirichlet conditions on the other
Motivated by its relevance for the study of perturbations of one-dimensional voter models, including stochastic Potts models at low temperature, we consider diffusively rescaled coalescing random walks with branching and killing. Our main result is convergence to a new continuum process, in which the random space-time paths of the Sun-Swart Brownian net are terminated at a Poisson cloud of killing points. We also prove existence of a percolation transition as the killing rate varies. Key issues for convergence are the relations of the discrete model killing points and their Poisson intensity m…
We obtain sharp asymptotic estimates for hitting probabilities of a critical branching Brownian motion in one dimension with killing at 0 We also obtain sharp asymptotic formulas for the tail probabilities of the number of particles killed at 0. In the special case of double-or-nothing branching, we give exact formulas for both the hitting probabilities, in terms of elliptic functions, and the distribution of the number of killed particles.
Particle approximations for certain nonlinear and nonlocal reaction-diffusion equations are studied using a system of Brownian motions with killing. The system is described by a collection of i.i.d. Brownian particles where each particle is killed independently at a rate determined by the empirical sub-probability measure of the states of the particles alive. A large deviation principle (LDP) for such sub-probability measure-valued processes is established. Along the way a convenient variational representation, which is of independent interest, for expectations of nonnegative functionals of Br…
Recently O'Connell introduced an interacting diffusive particle system in order to study a directed polymer model in 1+1 dimensions. The infinitesimal generator of the process is a harmonic transform of the quantum Toda-lattice Hamiltonian by the Whittaker function. As a physical interpretation of this construction, we show that the O'Connell process without drift is realized as a system of mutually killing Brownian motions conditioned that all particles survive forever. When the characteristic length of interaction killing other particles goes to zero, the process is reduced to the noncollidi…
Branching explosion of Brownian Fleming-Viot systems
School of Mathematical Sciences, South China Normal University（华南师范大学数学科学学院）；Information and Artificial Intelligence, Anhui Agricultural University（安徽农业大学信息与人工智能学院）
Vicious Brownian motion is a diffusion scaling limit of Fisher's vicious walk model, which is a system of Brownian particles in one dimension such that if two of them meet they kill each other. We consider the vicious Brownian motion conditioned never to collide with each other, and call it the noncolliding Brownian motion. This conditional diffusion process is equivalent to the eigenvalue process of a Hermitian-matrix-valued Brownian motion studied by Dyson. Recently O'Connell introduced a generalization of the noncolliding Brownian motion by using the eigenfunctions (the Whittaker functions)…
We study the scaling limit of a large class of voter model perturbations in one dimension, including stochastic Potts models, to a universal limiting object, the continuum voter model perturbation. The perturbations can be described in terms of bulk and boundary nucleations of new colors (opinions). The discrete and continuum (space) models are obtained from their respective duals, the discrete net with killing and Brownian net with killing. These determine the color genealogy by means of reduced graphs. We focus our attention on models where the voter and boundary nucleation dynamics depend o…
We study the density X(t,x) of one-dimensional super-Brownian motion and find the asymptotic behaviour of P(0<X(t,x)<a) as a approaches 0, as well as the Hausdorff dimension of the boundary of the support of X(t). The answers are in terms of the lead eigenvalue of the Ornstein-Uhlenbeck generator with a particular killing term. This work is motivated in part by questions of pathwise uniqueness for associated stochastic partial differential equations.
This article studies the quasi-stationary behaviour of absorbed one-dimensional diffusion processes with killing on $[0,\infty)$. We obtain criteria for the exponential convergence to a unique quasi-stationary distribution in total variation, uniformly with respect to the initial distribution. Our approach is based on probabilistic and coupling methods, contrary to the classical approach based on spectral theory results. Our general criteria apply in the case where $\infty$ is entrance and 0 either regular or exit, and are proved to be satisfied under several explicit assumptions expressed onl…
We study a diffusion approximation for a model of stochastic motion of a particle in one spatial dimension. The velocity of the particle is constant but the direction of the motion undergoes random changes with a Poisson clock. Moreover, the particle interacts with an interface in such a way that it can randomly be reflected, transmitted, or killed, and the corresponding probabilities depend on whether the particle arrives at the interface from the left, or right. We prove that the limit process is a minimal Brownian motion, if the probability of killing is positive. In the case of no killing,…
Brownian motions on star graphs in the sense of Itô-McKean, that is, Walsh processes admitting a generalized boundary behavior including stickiness and jumps and having an angular distribution with finite support, are examined. Their generators are identified as Laplace operators on the graph subject to non-local Feller-Wentzell boundary conditions. A pathwise description is achieved for every admissible boundary condition: For finite jump measures, a construction of Kostrykin, Potthoff and Schrader in the continuous setting is expanded via a technique of successive killings and revivals; for …
Let $D$ be an unbounded domain in $\RR^d$ with $d\geq 3$. We show that if $D$ contains an unbounded uniform domain, then the symmetric reflecting Brownian motion (RBM) on $\overline D$ is transient. Next assume that RBM $X$ on $\overline D$ is transient and let $Y$ be its time change by Revuz measure ${\bf 1}_D(x) m(x)dx$ for a strictly positive continuous integrable function $m$ on $\overline D$. We further show that if there is some $r>0$ so that $D\setminus \overline {B(0, r)}$ is an unbounded uniform domain, then $Y$ admits one and only one symmetric diffusion that genuinely extends it and…
The classical inverse first passage time problem asks whether, for a Brownian motion $(B_t)_{t\geq 0}$ and a positive random variable $ξ$, there exists a barrier $b:\mathbb{R}_+\to\mathbb{R}$ such that $\mathbb{P}\{B_s>b(s), 0\leq s \leq t\}=\mathbb{P}\{ξ>t\}$, for all $t\geq 0$. We study a variant of the inverse first passage time problem for killed Brownian motion. We show that if $λ>0$ is a killing rate parameter and $\mathbb{1}_{(-\infty,0]}$ is the indicator of the set $(-\infty,0]$ then, under certain compatibility assumptions, there exists a unique continuous function $b:\mathbb{R}_+\to…
By Gyongy's theorem, a local and stochastic volatility (LSV) model is calibrated to the market prices of all European call options with positive maturities and strikes if its local volatility function is equal to the ratio of the Dupire local volatility function over the root conditional mean square of the stochastic volatility factor given the spot value. This leads to a SDE nonlinear in the sense of McKean. Particle methods based on a kernel approximation of the conditional expectation, as presented by Guyon and Henry-Labordère (2011), provide an efficient calibration procedure even if some …
We study the transition density of a standard two-dimensional Brownian motion killed when hitting a bounded Borel set $A$. We derive the asymptotic form of the density, say $p^A_t({\bf x},{\bf y})$, for large times $t$ and for ${\bf x}$ and ${\bf y}$ in the exterior of $A$ valid uniformly under the constraint $|{\bf x}|\vee |{\bf y}| =O(t)$. Within the parabolic regime $|{\bf x}|\vee |{\bf y}| = O(\sqrt t)$ in particular $p^A_t({\bf x},{\bf y})$ is shown to behave like $4e_A({\bf x})e_A({\bf y}) (\lg t)^{-2} p_t({\bf y}-{\bf x})$ for large $t$, where $p_t({\bf y}-{\bf x})$ is the transition ke…
We address diffusion processes in a bounded domain, while focusing on somewhat unexplored affinities between the presence of absorbing and/or inaccessible boundaries. For the Brownian motion (Lévy-stable cases are briefly mentioned) model-independent features are established, of the dynamical law that underlies the short time behavior of these random paths, whose overall life-time is predefined to be long. As a by-product, the limiting regime of a permanent trapping in a domain is obtained. We demonstrate that the adopted conditioning method, involving the so-called Bernstein transition functi…
The inverse first passage time problem asks whether, for a Brownian motion $B$ and a nonnegative random variable $ζ$, there exists a time-varying barrier $b$ such that $\mathbb{P}\{B_s>b(s),0\leq s\leq t\}=\mathbb{P}\{ζ>t\}$. We study a "smoothed" version of this problem and ask whether there is a "barrier" $b$ such that $ \mathbb{E}[\exp(-λ\int_0^tψ(B_s-b(s))\,ds)]=\mathbb{P}\{ζ>t\}$, where $λ$ is a killing rate parameter, and $ψ:\mathbb{R}\to[0,1]$ is a nonincreasing function. We prove that if $ψ$ is suitably smooth, the function $t\mapsto \mathbb{P}\{ζ>t\}$ is twice continuously differentia…
Sticky Brownian motion is the simplest example of a diffusion process that can spend finite time both in the interior of a domain and on its boundary. It arises in various applications such as in biology, materials science, and finance. This article spotlights the unusual behavior of sticky Brownian motions from the perspective of applied mathematics, and provides tools to efficiently simulate them. We show that a sticky Brownian motion arises naturally for a particle diffusing on $\mathbb{R}_+$ with a strong, short-ranged potential energy near the origin. This is a limit that accurately model…
Using a capacity approach, and the theory of measure's perturbation of Dirichlet forms, we give the probabilistic representation of the General Robin boundary value problems on an arbitrary domain $Ω$, involving smooth measures, which give arise to a new process obtained by killing the general reflecting Brownian motion at a random time. We obtain some properties of the semigroup directly from its probabilistic representation, and some convergence theorems, and also a probabilistic interpretation of the phenomena occurring on the boundary.
Maximal couplings are (probabilistic) couplings of Markov processes such that the tail probabilities of the coupling time attain the total variation lower bound (Aldous bound) uniformly for all time. Markovian (or immersion) couplings are couplings defined by strategies where neither process is allowed to look into the future of the other before making the next transition. Markovian couplings are typically easier to construct and analyze than general couplings, and play an important role in many branches of probability and analysis. Hsu and Sturm (2013) proved that the reflection-coupling of B…
We obtain a formula for the distribution of the first exit time of Brownian motion from the alcove of an affine Weyl group. In most cases the formula is expressed compactly, in terms of Pfaffians. Expected exit times are derived in the type à case. The results extend to other Markov processes. We also give formulas for the real eigenfunctions of the Dirichlet and Neumann Laplacians on alcoves, observing that the `Hot Spots' conjecture of J. Rauch is true for alcoves.
