We present a formalization of the spine change of measure approach for branching diffusions that improves on the scheme laid out for branching Brownian motion in Kyprianou (2004) ["Travelling wave solutions to the KPP equation, Ann. Inst. H. Poincare Probab. Statist. 40, no.1, pp53-72] which itself made use of earlier works of Lyons et al (1997) ["A conceptual proof of the Kesten-Stigum theorem for multi-type branching processes", Classical and modern branching processes, IMA Vol. Math. Appl., vol.84, Springer, New York, pp181-185]. We use our new formulation to interpret certain `Gibbs-Boltzmann' weightings of particles and use this to give a new, intuitive and proof of a more general `Many-to-One' result which enables expectations of sums over particles in the branching diffusion to be calculated purely in terms of an expectation of one particle. Significantly, our formalization has provided the foundations that facilitate a variety of new, greatly simplified and more intuitive proofs in branching diffusions: see, for example, the L^p convergence of additive martingales in Hardy and Harris (2006) ["Spine proofs for L^p-convergence of branching-diffusion martingales", arXiv:math.PR/0611056], the path large deviation results for branching Brownian motion in Hardy and Harris (2006) ["A conceptual approach to a path result for branching Brownian motion", Stochastic Processes and their Applications, doi:10.1016/j.spa.2006.05.010] and the large deviations for a continuous-typed branching diffusion in Git et al (2006) ["Exponential growth rates in a typed branching diffusion", Annals Applied Prob., (under revision)] and Hardy and Harris (2004) ["A spine proof of a lower-bound for a typed branching diffusion", no.0408, Mathematics Preprint, University of Bath].
We demonstrate a novel strong law of large numbers for branching processes, with a simple proof via measure-theoretic manipulations and spine theory. Roughly speaking, any sequence of events that eventually occurs almost surely for the spine entails the almost sure convergence of a certain sum over particles in the population.
In the literature, the spine decomposition of branching Markov processes was constructed under the assumption that each individual has at least one child. In this paper, we give a detailed construction of the spine decomposition of general branching Markov processes allowing the possibility of no offspring when a particle dies. Then we give some applications of the spine decomposition.
In this article we contribute to the moment analysis of branching processes in catalytic media. The many-to-few lemma based on the spine technique is used to derive a system of (discrete space) partial differential equations for the number of particles in a variation of constants formulation. The long-time behaviour is then deduced from renewal theorems and induction.
Using the foundations laid down in Hardy and Harris (2006) ["A new formulation of the spine approach in branching diffusions", arXiv:math.PR/0611054], we present new spine proofs of the L^p-convergence p>=1) of some key `additive' martingales for three distinct models of branching diffusions, including new results for a multi-type branching Brownian motion and discussion of left-most particle speeds. The spine techniques we develop give clear and simple arguments in the spirit of the conceptual spine proofs found in Kyprianou (2004) ["Travelling wave solutions to the KPP equation, Ann. Inst. H…
In this paper, we provide a pathwise spine decomposition for superprocesses with both local and non-local branching mechanisms under a martingale change of measure. This result complements the related results obtained in Evans (1993), Kyprianou et al. (2012) and Liu, Ren and Song (2009) for superprocesses with purely local branching mechanisms and in Chen, Ren and Song (2016) and Kyprianou and Palau (2016) for multitype superprocesses. As an application of this decomposition, we obtain necessary/sufficient conditions for the limit of the fundamental martingale to be non-degenerate. In particul…
We consider a branching-selection particle system on the real line, introduced by Brunet and Derrida. In this model the size of the population is fixed to a constant $N$. At each step individuals in the population reproduce independently, making children around their current position. Only the $N$ rightmost children survive to reproduce at the next step. Bérard and Gouéré studied the speed at which the cloud of individuals drifts, assuming the tails of the displacement decays at exponential rate; Bérard and Maillard took interest in the case of heavy tail displacements. We take interest in an …
We consider branching random walks with a spine in the domain of attraction of an $α$-stable Lévy process. For this process, the classical derivative martingale in general degenerates in the limit. We first determine the quantity replacing the derivative martingale and show that it converges to a non-degenerate limit under a certain LlogL-type condition which we assume to be optimal. We go on to give the Seneta-Heyde norming for the critical additive martingale under the same assumptions. The proofs are based on the methods introduced in our previous paper which considered the finite variance …
We show uniqueness of the spine of a Fleming-Viot particle system under minimal assumptions on the driving process. If the driving process is a continuous time Markov process on a finite space, we show that asymptotically, when the number of particles goes to infinity, the branching rate for the spine is twice that of a generic particle in the system, and every side branch has the distribution of the unconditioned generic branching tree.
Evans (1992) described the semi-group of a superprocess with quadratic branching mechanism under a martingale change of measure in terms of the semi-group of an immortal particle and the semigroup of the superprocess prior to the change of measure. This result, commonly referred to as the spine decomposition, alludes to a pathwise decomposition in which independent copies of the original process `immigrate' along the path of the immortal particle. For branching particle diffusions the analogue of this decomposition has already been demonstrated in the pathwise sense, see for example Hardy and …
We prove local convergence results of rerooted conditioned multi-type Galton--Watson trees. The limit objects are multitype variants of the random sin-tree constructed by Aldous (1991), and differ according to which types recur infinitely often along the backwards growing spine.
Consider a supercritical superdiffusion (X_t) on a domain D subset R^d with branching mechanism -β(x) z+α(x) z^2 + int_{(0,infty)} (e^{-yz}-1+yz) Pi(x,dy). The skeleton decomposition provides a pathwise description of the process in terms of immigration along a branching particle diffusion. We use this decomposition to derive the Strong Law of Large Numbers (SLLN) for a wide class of superdiffusions from the corresponding result for branching particle diffusions. That is, we show that for suitable test functions f and starting measures mu, < f,X_t>/P_{mu}[< f,X_t>] -> W_{infty}, P_{mu}-almost …
We consider a branching Brownian motion with linear drift in which particles are killed on exiting the interval (0,K) and study the evolution of the process on the event of survival as the width of the interval shrinks to the critical value at which survival is no longer possible. We combine spine techniques and a backbone decomposition to obtain exact asymptotics for the near-critical survival probability. This allows us to deduce the existence of a quasi-stationary limit result for the process conditioned on survival which reveals that the backbone thins down to a spine as we approach critic…
In this paper we use the spine decomposition and martingale change of measure to establish a Kesten-Stigum $L\log L$ theorem for branching Hunt processes. This result is a generalization of the results in Asmussen-Hering (1976) and Hering (1978) for branching diffusions.
We give a proof of a result on the growth of the number of particles along chosen paths in a branching Brownian motion. The work follows the approach of classical large deviations results, in which paths in $C[0,1]$ are rescaled onto $C[0,T]$ for large $T$. The methods used are probabilistic and take advantage of modern spine techniques.
In this paper we prove that, under certain conditions, a strong law of large number holds for a class of branching particle systems $X$ corresponding to the parameters $(Y,β,ψ)$, where $Y$ is a Hunt process and $ψ$ is the generating function for the offspring. The main tool of this paper is the spine decomposition and we only need a $L\log L$ condition.
We give new results on the growth of the number of particles in a dyadic branching Brownian motion which follow within a fixed distance of a path $f:[0,\infty)\to \mathbb{R}$. We show that it is possible to count the number of particles without rescaling the paths. Our results reveal that the number of particles along certain paths can oscillate dramatically. The methods used are entirely probabilistic, taking advantage of the spine technique developed by, amongst others, Lyons et al, Kyprianou, and Hardy & Harris.
We study the limits of the additive and derivative martingales of one-dimensional branching Brownian motion in a periodic environment. Then we prove the existence of pulsating travelling wave solutions of the corresponding F-KPP equation in the supercritical and critical cases by representing the solutions probabilistically in terms of the limits of the additive and derivative martingales. We also prove that there is no pulsating travelling wave solution in the subcritical case. Our main tools are the spine decomposition and martingale change of measures.
We are interested in the dynamic of a structured branching population where the trait of each individual moves according to a Markov process. The rate of division of each individual is a function of its trait and when a branching event occurs, the trait of a descendant at birth depends on the trait of the mother. We prove a law of large numbers for the empirical distribution of ancestral trajectories. It ensures that the empirical measure converges to the mean value of the spine which is a time-inhomogeneous Markov process describing the trait of a typical individual along its ancestral lineag…
Let $X$ be the branching particle diffusion corresponding to the operator $Lu+β(u^{2}-u)$ on $D\subseteq \mathbb{R}^{d}$ (where $β\geq 0$ and $β\not\equiv 0$). Let $λ_{c}$ denote the generalized principal eigenvalue for the operator $L+β$ on $D$ and assume that it is finite. When $λ_{c}>0$ and $L+β-λ_{c}$ satisfies certain spectral theoretical conditions, we prove that the random measure $\exp \{-λ_{c}t\}X_{t}$ converges almost surely in the vague topology as $t$ tends to infinity. This result is motivated by a cluster of articles due to Asmussen and Hering dating from the mid-seventies as wel…
We consider the Brownian tree introduced by Aldous and the associated Q-process which consists in an infinite spine on which are grafted independent Brownian trees. We present a reversal procedure on these trees that consists in looking at the tree downward from its top: the branching points becoming leaves and leaves becoming branching points. We prove that the distribution of the tree is invariant under this reversal procedure, which provides a better understanding of previous results from Bi and Delmas (2016).
Branching Processes in Random Environment (BPREs) $(Z_n:n\geq0)$ are the generalization of Galton-Watson processes where in each generation the reproduction law is picked randomly in an i.i.d. manner. In the supercritical case, the process survives with positive probability and then almost surely grows geometrically. This paper focuses on rare events when the process takes positive but small values for large times. We describe the asymptotic behavior of $\mathbb{P}(1 \leq Z_n \leq k|Z_0=i)$, $k,i\in\mathbb{N}$ as $n\rightarrow \infty$. More precisely, we characterize the exponential decrease o…
It is well understood that a supercritical continuous-state branching process (CSBP) is equal in law to a discrete continuous-time Galton Watson process (the skeleton of prolific individuals) whose edges are dressed in a Poissonian way with immigration which initiates subcritial CSBPs (non-prolific mass). Equally well understood in the setting of CSBPs and super-processes is the notion of a spine or immortal particle dressed in a Poissonian way with immigration which initiates copies of the original CSBP, which emerges when conditioning the process to survive eternally. In this article, we rev…
We study the high temperature phase of a family of typed branching diffusions initially studied in [Astérisque 236 (1996) 133--154] and [Lecture Notes in Math. 1729 (2000) 239--256 Springer, Berlin]. The primary aim is to establish some almost-sure limit results for the long-term behavior of this particle system, namely the speed at which the population of particles colonizes both space and type dimensions, as well as the rate at which the population grows within this asymptotic shape. Our approach will include identification of an explicit two-phase mechanism by which particles can build up i…
We consider a branching process with Poissonian immigration where individuals have inheritable types. At rate theta, new individuals singly enter the total population and start a new population which evolves like a supercritical, homogeneous, binary Crump-Mode-Jagers process: individuals have i.i.d. lifetimes durations (non necessarily exponential) during which they give birth independently at constant rate b. First, using spine decomposition, we relax previously known assumptions required for a.s. convergence of total population size. Then, we consider three models of structured populations: …
We consider the classical problem of existence, uniqueness and asymptotics of monotone solutions to the travelling wave equation associated to the parabolic semi-group equation of a super-Brownian motion with a general branching mechanism. Whilst we are strongly guided by the probabilistic reasoning of Kyprianou (2004) for branching Brownian motion, the current paper offers a number of new insights. Our analysis incorporates the role of Seneta-Heyde norming which, in the current setting, draws on classical work of Grey (1974). We give a pathwise explanation of Evans' immortal particle picture …
A new formulation of non-local branching superprocesses is given from which we derive as special cases the rebirth, the multitype, the mass-structured, the multilevel and the age-reproduction-structured superprocesses and the superprocess-controlled immigration process. This unified treatment simplifies considerably the proof of existence of the old classes of superprocesses and also gives rise to some new ones.
We prove that the extremal process of branching Brownian motion, in the limit of large times, converges weakly to a cluster point process. The limiting process is a (randomly shifted) Poisson cluster process, where the positions of the clusters is a Poisson process with exponential density. The law of the individual clusters is characterized as branching Brownian motions conditioned to perform "unusually large displacements", and its existence is proved. The proof combines three main ingredients. First, the results of Bramson on the convergence of solutions of the Kolmogorov-Petrovsky-Piscouno…
This work provides a brief introduction to continuous-state branching processes (CB-processes) and continuous-state branching processes with immigration (CBI-processes) accessible to graduate students with reasonable background in probability theory and stochastic processes. In particular, we give a quick development of the stochastic equations of the processes and some immediate applications. The proofs given here are more elementary than those appearing in the literature before. We have made them readable without requiring too much preliminary knowledge on branching processes and stochastic …
Age dependent population dynamics are frequently modeled with generalizations of the classic McKendrick-von Foerster equation. These are deterministic systems, and a stochastic generalization was recently reported in [1,2]. Here we develop a fully stochastic theory for age-structured populations via quantum field theoretical Doi-Peliti techniques. This results in a path integral formulation where birth and death events correspond to cubic and quadratic interaction terms. This formalism allows us to efficiently recapitulate the results in [1,2], exemplifying the utility of Doi-Peliti methods. F…
In this paper, we aim to develop the theory of optimal stochastic control for branching diffusion processes where both the movement and the reproduction of the particles depend on the control. More precisely, we study the problem of minimizing a criterion that is expressed as the expected value of the product of individual costs penalizing the final position of each particle. In this setting, we show that the value function is the unique viscosity solution of a nonlinear parabolic PDE, that is, the Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equation corresponding to the problem. To this end, we extend the dynami…
We consider the problem of minimizing the entropy of a law with respect to the law of a reference branching Brownian motion under density constraints at an initial and final time. We call this problem the branching Schrödinger problem by analogy with the Schrödinger problem, where the reference process is a Brownian motion. Whereas the Schrödinger problem is related to regularized (a.k.a. entropic) optimal transport, we investigate here the link of the branching Schrödinger problem with regularized unbalanced optimal transport. This link is shown at two levels. First, relying on duality argume…
This paper contains two contributions in the study of optimal transport on metric graphs. Firstly, we prove a Benamou-Brenier formula for the Wasserstein distance, which establishes the equivalence of static and dynamical optimal transport. Secondly, in the spirit of Jordan-Kinderlehrer-Otto, we show that McKean-Vlasov equations can be formulated as gradient flow of the free energy in the Wasserstein space of probability measures. The proofs of these results are based on careful regularisation arguments to circumvent some of the difficulties arising in metric graphs, namely, branching of geode…
We provide a rigorous derivation of the brownian motion as the limit of a deterministic system of hard-spheres as the number of particles $N$ goes to infinity and their diameter $\varepsilon$ simultaneously goes to $0$, in the fast relaxation limit $α= N\varepsilon^{d-1}\to \infty $ (with a suitable diffusive scaling of the observation time). As suggested by Hilbert in his sixth problem, we rely on a kinetic formulation as an intermediate level of description between the microscopic and the fluid descriptions: we use indeed the linear Boltzmann equation to describe one tagged particle in a gas…
