We study a random fragmentation process and its associated random tree. The process has earlier been studied by Dean and Majumdar (J. Phys. A: Math. Gen., vol. 35, L501--L507), who found a phase transition: the number of fragmentations is asymptotically normal in some cases but not in others, depending on the position of roots of a certain characteristic equation. This parallels the behaviour of discrete analogues with various random trees that have been studied in computer science. We give rigorous proofs of this phase transition, and add further details.
The proof uses the contraction method. We extend some previous results for recursive sequences of random variables to families of random variables with a continuous parameter; we believe that this extension has independent interest.
Given a general critical or sub-critical branching mechanism and its associated Lévy continuum random tree, we consider a pruning procedure on this tree using a Poisson snake. It defines a fragmentation process on the tree. We compute the family of dislocation measures associated with this fragmentation. This work generalizes the work made for a Brownian tree [Abraham, Serlet] and for a tree without Brownian part [Abraham, Delmas].
We show that the genealogy of any self-similar fragmentation process can be encoded in a compact measured real tree. Under some Malthusian hypotheses, we compute the fractal Hausdorff dimension of this tree through the use of a natural measure on the set of its leaves. This generalizes previous work of Haas and Miermont which was restricted to conservative fragmentation processes.
The basic object we consider is a certain model of continuum random tree, called the stable tree. We construct a fragmentation process $(F^-(t), t>=0)$ out of this tree by removing the vertices located under height $t$. Thanks to a self-similarity property of the stable tree, we show that the fragmentation process is also self-similar. The semigroup and other features of the fragmentation are given explicitly. Asymptotic results are given, as well as a couple of related results on continuous-state branching processes.
We encode a certain class of stochastic fragmentation processes, namely self-similar fragmentation processes with a negative index of self-similarity, into a metric family tree which belongs to the family of Continuum Random Trees of Aldous. When the splitting times of the fragmentation are dense near 0, the tree can in turn be encoded into a continuous height function, just as the Brownian Continuum Random Tree is encoded in a normalized Brownian excursion. Under mild hypotheses, we then compute the Hausdorff dimensions of these trees, and the maximal Hölder exponents of the height functions.
We study a fragmentation of the $\mathbf p$-trees of Camarri and Pitman [Elect. J. Probab., vol. 5, pp. 1--18, 2000]. We give exact correspondences between the $\mathbf p$-trees and trees which encode the fragmentation. We then use these results to study the fragmentation of the ICRTs (scaling limits of $\mathbf p$-trees) and give distributional correspondences between the ICRT and the tree encoding the fragmentation. The theorems for the ICRT extend the ones by Bertoin and Miermont [Ann. Appl. Probab., vol. 23(4), pp. 1469--1493, 2013] about the cut tree of the Brownian continuum random tree.
We study a natural fragmentation process of the so-called stable tree introduced by Duquesne and Le Gall, which consists in removing the nodes of the tree according to a certain procedure that makes the fragmentation self-similar with positive index. Explicit formulas for the semigroup are given, and we provide asymptotic results. We also give an alternative construction of this fragmentation, using paths of Levy processes, hence echoing the two alternative constructions of the standard additive coalescent by fragmenting the Brownian continuum random tree or using Brownian paths, respectively …
We study fragmentation of a random recursive tree into a forest by repeated removal of nodes. The initial tree consists of N nodes and it is generated by sequential addition of nodes with each new node attaching to a randomly-selected existing node. As nodes are removed from the tree, one at a time, the tree dissolves into an ensemble of separate trees, namely, a forest. We study statistical properties of trees and nodes in this heterogeneous forest, and find that the fraction of remaining nodes m characterizes the system in the limit N --> infty. We obtain analytically the size density phi_s …
In this paper we give a new example of duality between fragmentation and coagulation operators. Consider the space of partitions of mass (i.e., decreasing sequences of nonnegative real numbers whose sum is 1) and the two-parameter family of Poisson--Dirichlet distributions $\operatorname {PD}(α,θ)$ that take values in this space. We introduce families of random fragmentation and coagulation operators $\mathrm {Frag}_α$ and $\mathrm {Coag}_{α,θ}$, respectively, with the following property: if the input to $\mathrm {Frag}_α$ has $\operatorname {PD}(α,θ)$ distribution, then the output has $\opera…
We provide information about the asymptotic regimes for a homogeneous fragmentation of a finite set. We establish a phase transition for the asymptotic behaviours of the shattering times, defined as the first instants when all the blocks of the partition process have cardinality less than a fixed integer. Our results may be applied to the study of certain random split trees.
Given any regularly varying dislocation measure, we identify a natural self-similar fragmentation tree as scaling limit of discrete fragmentation trees with unit edge lengths. As an application, we obtain continuum random tree limits of Aldous's beta-splitting models and Ford's alpha models for phylogenetic trees. This confirms in a strong way that the whole trees grow at the same speed as the mean height of a randomly chosen leaf.
Similarly as in (Blancas et al. 2018) where nested coalescent processes are studied, we generalize the definition of partition-valued homogeneous Markov fragmentation processes to the setting of nested partitions, i.e. pairs of partitions $(ζ,ξ)$ where $ζ$ is finer than $ξ$. As in the classical univariate setting, under exchangeability and branching assumptions, we characterize the jump measure of nested fragmentation processes, in terms of erosion coefficients and dislocation measures. Among the possible jumps of a nested fragmentation, three forms of erosion and two forms of dislocation are …
We consider the model of Brownian motion indexed by the Brownian tree. For every $r\geq 0$ and every connected component of the set of points where Brownian motion is greater than $r$, we define the boundary size of this component, and we then show that the collection of these boundary sizes evolves when $r$ varies like a well-identified growth-fragmentation process. We then prove that the same growth-fragmentation process appears when slicing a Brownian disk at height $r$ and considering the perimeters of the resulting connected components.
We provide a new geometric representation of a family of fragmentation processes by nested laminations, which are compact subsets of the unit disk made of noncrossing chords. We specifically consider a fragmentation obtained by cutting a random stable tree at random points, which split the tree into smaller subtrees. When coding each of these cutpoints by a chord in the unit disk, we separate the disk into smaller connected components, corresponding to the smaller subtrees of the initial tree. This geometric point of view allows us in particular to highlight a new relation between the Aldous-P…
We consider a random process on recursive trees, with three types of events. Vertices give birth at a constant rate (growth), each edge may be removed independently (fragmentation of the tree) and clusters (or trees) are frozen with a rate proportional to their sizes (isolation of connected component). A phase transition occurs when the isolation is able to stop the growth fragmentation process and cause extinction. When the process survives, the number of clusters increases exponentially and we prove that the normalized empirical measure of clusters a.s. converges to a limit law on recursive …
We consider a natural destruction process of an infinite recursive tree by removing each edge after an independent exponential time. The destruction up to time t is encoded by a partition $Π$(t) of N into blocks of connected vertices. Despite the lack of exchangeability, just like for an exchangeable fragmentation process, the process $Π$ is Markovian with transitions determined by a splitting rates measure r. However, somewhat surprisingly, r fails to fulfill the usual integrability condition for the dislocation measure of exchangeable fragmentations. We further observe that a time-dependent …
We establish the central limit theorem for the number of groups at the equilibrium of a coagulation-fragmentation process given by a parameter function with polynomial rate of growth. The result obtained is compared with the one for random combinatorial structures obeying the logarithmic condition.
We study fragmentation trees of Gibbs type. In the binary case, we identify the most general Gibbs-type fragmentation tree with Aldous' beta-splitting model, which has an extended parameter range $β>-2$ with respect to the ${\rm beta}(β+1,β+1)$ probability distributions on which it is based. In the multifurcating case, we show that Gibbs fragmentation trees are associated with the two-parameter Poisson--Dirichlet models for exchangeable random partitions of $\mathbb {N}$, with an extended parameter range $0\leα\le1$, $θ\ge-2α$ and $α<0$, $θ=-mα$, $m\in \mathbb {N}$.
Consider the Aldous--Pitman fragmentation process [Ann Probab, 26(4):1703--1726, 1998] of a Brownian continuum random tree ${\cal T}^{\mathrm{br}}$. The associated cut tree cut$({\cal T}^{\mathrm{br}})$, introduced by Bertoin and Miermont [Ann Appl Probab, 23:1469--1493, 2013], is defined in a measurable way from the fragmentation process, describing the genealogy of the fragmentation, and is itself distributed as a Brownian CRT. In this work, we introduce a shuffle transform, which can be considered as the reverse of the map taking ${\cal T}^{\mathrm{br}}$ to cut$({\cal T}^{\mathrm{br}})$.
A Markov Additive Process is a bi-variate Markov process $(ξ,J)=\big((ξ_t,J_t),t\geq0\big)$ which should be thought of as a multi-type Lévy process: the second component $J$ is a Markov chain on a finite space $\{1,\ldots,K\}$, and the first component $ξ$ behaves locally as a Lévy process, with local dynamics depending on $J$. In the subordinator-like case where $ξ$ is nondecreasing, we establish several results concerning the moments of $ξ$ and of its exponential functional $I_ξ=\int_{0}^{\infty} e^{-ξ_t}\mathrm dt,$ extending the work of Carmona et al., and Bertoin and Yor. We then apply the…
We consider a family of fragmentation processes where the rate at which a particle splits is proportional to a function of its mass. Let $F\_{1}^{(m)}(t),F\_{2}^{(m)}(t),...$ denote the decreasing rearrangement of the masses present at time $t$ in a such process, starting from an initial mass $m$. Let then $m\to \infty $. Under an assumption of regular variation type on the dynamics of the fragmentation, we prove that the sequence $(F\_{2}^{(m)},F\_{3}^{(m)},...)$ converges in distribution, with respect to the Skorohod topology, to a fragmentation with immigration process. This holds jointly w…
We consider the height process of a Lévy process with no negative jumps, and its associated continuous tree representation. Using tools developed by Duquesne and Le Gall, we construct a fragmentation process at height, which generalizes the fragmentation at height of stable trees given by Miermont. In this more general framework, we recover that the dislocation measures are the same as the dislocation measures of the fragmentation at node introduced by Abraham and Delmas, up to a factor equal to the fragment size. We also compute the asymptotic for the number of small fragments.
We develop some theory of spinal decompositions of discrete and continuous fragmentation trees. Specifically, we consider a coarse and a fine spinal integer partition derived from spinal tree decompositions. We prove that for a two-parameter Poisson--Dirichlet family of continuous fragmentation trees, including the stable trees of Duquesne and Le Gall, the fine partition is obtained from the coarse one by shattering each of its parts independently, according to the same law. As a second application of spinal decompositions, we prove that among the continuous fragmentation trees, stable trees a…
We establish necessary and sufficient conditions for convergence (in the sense of finite dimensional distributions) of multiplicative measures on the set of partitions. We show that this convergence is equivalent to asymptotic independence of finite sizes of components. The multiplicative measures depict component spectra of random structures, the equilibrium of classic models of statistical mechanics and stochastic processes of coagulation-fragmentation. We then apply Schur's tauberian lemma and some results from additive number theory and enumerative combinatorics, in order to verify the con…
We provide the exact large-time behavior of the tail distribution of the extinction time of a self-similar fragmentation process with a negative index of self-similarity, improving thus a previous result on the logarithmic asymptotic behavior of this tail. Two factors influence this behavior: the distribution of the largest fragment at the time of a dislocation and the index of self-similarity. As an application we obtain the asymptotic behavior of all moments of the largest fragment and compare it to the behavior of the moments of a tagged fragment, whose decrease is in general significantly …
We find limit shapes for a family of multiplicative measures on the set of partitions, induced by exponential generating functions with expansive parameters, $a_k\sim Ck^{p-1}, k\to\infty, p>0$,where $C$ is a positive constant. The measures considered are associated with reversible coagulation-fragmentation processes and certain combinatorial structures, known as assemblies. We prove the functional central limit theorem for the fluctuations of a scaled random partition from its limit shape. We demonstrate that when the component size passes beyond the threshold value, the independence of numbe…
This text surveys different probabilistic aspects of a model which is used to describe the evolution of an object that falls apart randomly as time passes. Each point of view yields useful techniques to establish properties of such random fragmentation processes.
The purpose of this work is to describe a duality between a fragmentation associated to certain Dirichlet distributions and a natural random coagulation. The dual fragmentation and coalescent chains arising in this setting appear in the description of the genealogy of Yule processes.
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 …
We consider fragmentations of an R-tree $T$ driven by cuts arriving according to a Poisson process on $T \times [0, \infty)$, where the first co-ordinate specifies the location of the cut and the second the time at which it occurs. The genealogy of such a fragmentation is encoded by the so-called cut-tree, which was introduced by Bertoin and Miermont for a fragmentation of the Brownian continuum random tree. The cut-tree was generalised by Dieuleveut to a fragmentation of the $α$-stable trees, $α\in (1, 2)$, and by Broutin and Wang to the inhomogeneous continuum random trees of Aldous and Pitm…
Let $\mathcal{S}_n$ be the permutation group on $n$ elements, and consider a random walk on $\mathcal{S}_n$ whose step distribution is uniform on $k$-cycles. We prove a well-known conjecture that the mixing time of this process is $(1/k)n\log n$, with threshold of width linear in $n$. Our proofs are elementary and purely probabilistic, and do not appeal to the representation theory of $\mathcal{S}_n$.
We consider a discrete-time Markov chain, called fragmentation process, that describes a specific way of successively removing objects from a linear arrangement. The process arises in population genetics and describes the ancestry of the genetic material of individuals in a population experiencing recombination. We aim at the law of the process over time. To this end, we investigate sets of realisations of this process that agree with respect to a specific order of events and represent each such set by a rooted (binary) tree. The probability of each tree is, in turn, obtained by Möbius inversi…
We model the growth of a cell population by a piecewise deterministic Markov branching tree. Each cell splits into two offsprings at a division rate $B(x)$ that depends on its size $x$. The size of each cell grows exponentially in time, at a rate that varies for each individual. We show that the mean empirical measure of the model satisfies a growth-fragmentation type equation if structured in both size and growth rate as state variables. We construct a nonparametric estimator of the division rate $B(x)$ based on the observation of the population over different sampling schemes of size $n$ on …
In this paper we prove a strong law of large numbers and its L^1-convergence counterpart for the process counted with a random characteristic in the context of self-similar fragmentation processes. This result extends a somewhat analogical result by Nerman for general branching processes to fragmentation processes. In addition, we apply the general result of this paper to a specific example that in particular extends a limit theorem, concerning the fragmentation energy, by Bertoin and Martínez from L^1-convergence to almost sure convergence. Our approach treats fragmentation processes with an …
We provide explicit conditions, in terms of the transition kernel of its driving particle, for a Markov branching process to admit a scaling limit toward a self-similar growth-fragmentation with negative index. We also derive a scaling limit for the genealogical embedding considered as a compact real tree.
We introduce multi-type Markov Branching trees, which are simple random population tree models where individuals are characterized by their size and type and give rise to (size,type)-children in a Galton-Watson fashion, with the rule that the size of any individual is a least the sum of the sizes of its children. Assuming that macroscopic size-splittings are rare, we describe the scaling limits of multi-type Markov Branching trees in terms of multi-type self-similar fragmentation trees. We observe three different regimes according to whether the probability of type change of a size-biased chil…
The size of the largest common subtree (maximum agreement subtree) of two independent uniform random binary trees on $n$ leaves is known to be between orders $n^{1/8}$ and $n^{1/2}$. By a construction based on recursive splitting and analyzable by standard "stochastic fragmentation" methods, we improve the lower bound to order $n^β$ for $β= \frac{\sqrt{3} - 1}{2} = 0.366$. Improving the upper bound remains a challenging problem.
We consider the height process of a Levy process with no negative jumps, and its associated continuous tree representation. Using Levy snake tools developed by Duquesne and Le Gall, with an underlying Poisson process, we construct a fragmentation process, which in the stable case corresponds to the self-similar fragmentation described by Miermont. For the general fragmentation process we compute a family of dislocation measures as well as the law of the size of a tagged fragment. We also give a special Markov property for the snake which is interesting in itself.
We consider the fragmentation at nodes of the Lévy continuous random tree introduced in a previous paper. In this framework we compute the asymptotic for the number of small fragments at time $θ$. This limit is increasing in $θ$ and discontinuous. In the $α$-stable case the fragmentation is self-similar with index $1/α$, with $α\in (1,2)$ and the results are close to those Bertoin obtained for general self-similar fragmentations but with an additional assumtion which is not fulfilled here.
Asymptotics for Beta-Splitting Trees via Homogeneous Fragmentations and Meromorphic Potential Theory
Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics, Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”, Bulgaria（索非亚大学“圣克利门特奥赫里德斯基”数学与信息学院）；Institute of Mathematics, University of Zurich, Switzerland（苏黎世大学数学研究所）；Institute of Mathematics and Informatics, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Bulgaria（保加利亚科学院数学与信息研究所）
Homogeneous mass fragmentation processes describe the evolution of a unit mass that breaks down randomly into pieces as time. Mathematically speaking, they can be thought of as continuous-time analogues of branching random walks with non-negative displacements. Following recent developments in the theory of branching random walks, in particular the work of \cite{AShi10}, we consider the problem of the Seneta-Heyde norming of the so-called additive martingale at criticality. Aside from replicating results for branching random walks in the new setting of fragmentation processes, our main goal is…
A self-similar growth-fragmentation describes the evolution of particles that grow and split as time passes. Its genealogy yields a self-similar continuum tree endowed with an intrinsic measure. Extending results of Haas for pure fragmentations, we relate the existence of an absolutely continuous profile to a simple condition in terms of the index of self-similarity and the so-called cumulant of the growth-fragmentation. When absolutely continuous, we approximate the profile by a function of the small fragments, and compute the Hausdorff dimension in the singular case. Applications to Boltzman…
We are interested in the cycles obtained by slicing at all heights random Boltzmann triangulations with a simple boundary. We establish a functional invariance principle for the lengths of these cycles, appropriately rescaled, as the size of the boundary grows. The limiting process is described using a self-similar growth-fragmentation process with explicit parameters. To this end, we introduce a branching peeling exploration of Boltzmann triangulations, which allows us to identify a crucial martingale involving the perimeters of cycles at given heights. We also use a recent result concerning …
Homogeneous fragmentations describe the evolution of a unit mass that breaks down randomly into pieces as time passes. They can be thought of as continuous time analogs of a certain type of branching random walks, which suggests the use of time-discretization to shift known results from the theory of branching random walks to the fragmentation setting. In particular, this yields interesting information about the asymptotic behaviour of fragmentations. On the other hand, homogeneous fragmentations can also be investigated using a powerful technique of discretization of space due to Kingman, nam…
A solid wooden cube fragments into pieces as we sequentially drill holes through it randomly. This seemingly straightforward observation encompasses deep and nontrivial geometrical and probabilistic behavior that is discussed here. Combining numerical simulations and rigorous results, we find off-critical scale-free behavior and a continuous transition at a critical density of holes that significantly differs from classical percolation.
The purpose of the present work is twofold. First, we develop the theory of general self-similar growth-fragmentation processes by focusing on martingales which appear naturally in this setting and by recasting classical results for branching random walks in this framework. In particular, we establish many-to-one formulas for growth-fragmentations and define the notion of intrinsic area of a growth-fragmentation. Second, we identify a distinguished family of growth-fragmentations closely related to stable Lévy processes, which are then shown to arise as the scaling limit of the perimeter proce…
We consider linear preferential attachment trees, and show that they can be regarded as random split trees in the sense of Devroye (1999), although with infinite potential branching. In particular, this applies to the random recursive tree and the standard preferential attachment tree. An application is given to the sum over all pairs of nodes of the common number of ancestors.
We identify the mean growth of the independence number of random binary search trees and random recursive trees and show normal fluctuations around their means. Similarly we also show normal limit laws for the domination number and variations of it for these two cases of random tree models. Our results are an application of a recent general theorem of Holmgren and Janson on fringe trees in these two random tree models.
The fragmentation processes of exchangeable partitions have already been studied by several authors. In this paper, we examine rather fragmentation of exchangeable compositions, that means partitions of $\mathbb{N}$ where the order of the blocks counts. We will prove that such a fragmentation is bijectively associated to an interval fragmentation. Using this correspondence, we then calculate the Hausdorff dimension of certain random closed set that arise in interval fragmentations and we study Ruelle's interval fragmentation.
We introduce the notion of a restricted exchangeable partition of $\mathbb{N}$. We obtain integral representations, consider associated fragmentations, embeddings into continuum random trees and convergence to such limit trees. In particular, we deduce from the general theory developed here a limit result conjectured previously for Ford's alpha model and its extension, the alpha-gamma model, where restricted exchangeability arises naturally.
We study the behaviour of a natural measure defined on the leaves of the genealogical tree of some branching processes, namely self-similar growth-fragmentation processes. Each particle, or cell, is attributed a positive mass that evolves in continuous time according to a positive self-similar Markov process and gives birth to children at negative jumps events. We are interested in the asymptotics of the mass of the ball centered at the root, as its radius decreases to $0$. We obtain the almost sure behaviour of this mass when the Eve cell starts with a strictly positive size. This differs fro…
We introduce a simple tree growth process that gives rise to a new two-parameter family of discrete fragmentation trees that extends Ford's alpha model to multifurcating trees and includes the trees obtained by uniform sampling from Duquesne and Le Gall's stable continuum random tree. We call these new trees the alpha-gamma trees. In this paper, we obtain their splitting rules, dislocation measures both in ranked order and in sized-biased order, and we study their limiting behaviour.
A homogeneous mass-fragmentation, as it has been defined in \cite{RFC}, describes the evolution of the collection of masses of fragments of an object which breaks down into pieces as time passes. Here, we show that this model can be enriched by considering also the types of the fragments, where a type may represent, for instance, a geometrical shape, and can take finitely many values. In this setting, the dynamics of a randomly tagged fragment play a crucial role in the analysis of the fragmentation. They are determined by a Markov additive process whose distribution depends explicitly on the …
