A quenched invariance principle for certain ballistic random walks in i.i.d. environments
Noam Berger, Ofer Zeitouni
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This version includes an extension of the results to cover also dimensions 2,3, and also corrects several minor innacuracies. The previous version included a correction of a minor error in (3.21) (used for d=4); The correction pushed the assumption on moments of regeneration times to >8
We prove that every random walk in i.i.d. environment in dimension greater than or equal to 2 that has an almost sure positive speed in a certain direction, an annealed invariance principle and some mild integrability condition for regeneration times also satisfies a quenched invariance principle. The argument is based on intersection estimates and a theorem of Bolthausen and Sznitman.
We consider a ballistic random walk in an i.i.d. random environment that does not allow retreating in a certain fixed direction. We prove an invariance principle (functional central limit theorem) under almost every fixed environment. The assumptions are nonnestling, at least two spatial dimensions, and a $2+ε$ moment for the step of the walk uniformly in the environment. The main point behind the invariance principle is that the quenched mean of the walk behaves subdiffusively.
We look at random walks in Dirichlet environment. It was known that in dimension $d\geq 3$, if the walk is sub-ballistic, the displacement of the walk is polynomial of order $κ$ for some explicit $κ$. We show that the walk, after renormalization, actually converges to a $κ$-stable completely asymmetric Levy Process.
We consider a nearest-neighbor, one-dimensional random walk $\{X_n\}_{n\geq 0}$ in a random i.i.d. environment, in the regime where the walk is transient with speed v_P > 0 and there exists an $s\in(1,2)$ such that the annealed law of $n^{-1/s} (X_n - n v_P)$ converges to a stable law of parameter s. Under the quenched law (i.e., conditioned on the environment), we show that no limit laws are possible. In particular we show that there exist sequences {t_k} and {t_k'} depending on the environment only, such that a quenched central limit theorem holds along the subsequence t_k, but the quenched …
We study the asymptotic behaviour of random walks in i.i.d. non-elliptic random environments on $\mathbb{Z}^d$. Standard conditions (and proofs) for ballisticity and the central limit theorem require ellipticity. We use oriented percolation and martingale arguments to give non-trivial local conditions for ballisticity and an annealed invariance principle in the non-elliptic setting.
We sharpen ellipticity criteria for random walks in i.i.d. random environments introduced by Campos and Ram\'ırez which ensure ballistic behavior. Furthermore, we construct new examples of random environments for which the walk satisfies the polynomial ballisticity criteria of Berger, Drewitz and Ram\'ırez. As a corollary, we can exhibit a new range of values for the parameters of Dirichlet random environments in dimension $d=2$ under which the corresponding random walk is ballistic.
We consider a one dimensional random walk in a random environment (RWRE) with a positive speed $\lim_{n\to\infty}\frac{X_n}{n}=v_α>0$. Gantert and Zeitouni showed that if the environment has both positive and negative local drifts then the quenched slowdown probabilities $P_ω(X_n < xn)$ with $x \in (0,v_α)$ decay approximately like $\exp\{-n^{1-1/s}\}$ for a deterministic $s > 1$. More precisely, they showed that $n^{-γ} \log P_ω( X_n < x n)$ converges to $0$ or $-\infty$ depending on whether $γ> 1-1/s$ or $γ< 1-1/s$. In this paper, we improve on this by showing that $n^{-1+1/s} \log P_ω( X_n …
In this thesis, we study the diffusive and ballistic behaviors of random walk in random environment (RWRE) in an integer lattice with dimension at least 2. Our contributions are in three directions: a conditional law of large numbers and regeneration structures for RWRE in Gibbsian environments, quenched invariance principles for balanced elliptic (but non uniformly elliptic) environments, and a proof of the Einstein relation for balanced iid uniformly elliptic environments.
We consider random walks in Dirichlet environment (RWDE) on $\Z ^d$, for $ d \geq 3 $, in the sub-ballistic case. We associate to any parameter $ (α_1, ..., α_{2d}) $ of the Dirichlet law a time-change to accelerate the walk. We prove that the continuous-time accelerated walk has an absolutely continuous invariant probability measure for the environment viewed from the particle. This allows to characterize directional transience for the initial RWDE. It solves as a corollary the problem of Kalikow's 0-1 law in the Dirichlet case in any dimension. Furthermore, we find the polynomial order of th…
We consider biased random walks in positive random conductances on the d-dimensional lattice in the zero-speed regime and study their scaling limits. We obtain a functional Law of Large Numbers for the position of the walker, properly rescaled. Moreover, we state a functional Central Limit Theorem where an atypical process, related to the Fractional Kinetics, appears in the limit.
We introduce ellipticity criteria for random walks in i.i.d. random environments under which we can extend the ballisticity conditions of Sznitman's and the polynomial effective criteria of Berger, Drewitz and Ramirez originally defined for uniformly elliptic random walks. We prove under them the equivalence of Sznitman's (T') condition with the polynomial effective criterion (P)_M, for M large enough. We furthermore give ellipticity criteria under which a random walk satisfying the polynomial effective criterion, is ballistic, satisfies the annealed central limit theorem or the quenched centr…
We give new criteria for ballistic behavior of random walks in random environment which are perturbations of the simple symmetric random walk on $\mathbb Z^d$ in dimensions $d\ge 4$. Our results extend those of Sznitman [Ann. Probab. 31, no. 1, 285-322 (2003)] and the recent ones of Ramírez and Saglietti [Preprint, arXiv:1808.01523], and allow us to exhibit new examples in dimensions $d\ge 4$ of ballistic random walks which do not satisfy Kalikow's condition. Our criteria implies ballisticity whenever the average of the local drift of the walk is not too small compared with an appropriate mome…
We consider a ballistic random walk in an i.i.d. random environment that does not allow retreating in a certain fixed direction. Homogenization and regeneration techniques combine to prove a law of large numbers and an averaged invariance principle. The assumptions are non-nestling and $1+\e$ (resp.\ $2+\e$) moments for the step of the walk uniformly in the environment, for the law of large numbers (resp. invariance principles). We also investigate invariance principles under fixed environments, and invariance principles for the environment-dependent mean of the walk.
We consider random walks in Dirichlet environment, introduced by Enriquez and Sabot in 2006. As this distribution on environments is not uniformly elliptic, the annealed integrability of exit times out of a given finite subset is a non-trivial property. We provide here an explicit equivalent condition for this integrability to happen, on general directed graphs. Such integrability problems arise for instance from the definition of Kalikow auxiliary random walk. Using our condition, we prove a refined version of the ballisticity criterion given by Enriquez and Sabot.
For a random walk in an elliptic i.i.d. random environment in dimension greater than or equal to 4, satisfying the a ballisticity condition slightly weaker than condition (T'), We consider the probability of linear slowdown. We show an upper bound for this probability which is very close to the lower bound obtained by the "naive trap" analysis. As a tool for obtaining the main result, we show an almost local version of the quenched central limit theorem under the same ballisticity condition.
We consider two models of one-dimensional random walks among biased i.i.d. random conductances: the first is the classical exponential tilt of the conductances, while the second comes from the effect of adding an external field to a random walk on a point process (the bias depending on the distance between points). We study the case when the walk is transient to the right but sub-ballistic, and identify the correct scaling of the random walk: we find $α\in[0,1]$ such that $\log X_n / \log n \to α$. Interestingly, $α$ does not depend on the intensity of the bias in the first case, but it does i…
The Tree Builder Random Walk is a special random walk that evolves on trees whose size increases with time, randomly and depending upon the walker. After every s steps of the walker, a random number of vertices are added to the tree and attached to the current position of the walker. These processes share similarities with other important classes of markovian and non-markovian random walks presenting a large variety of behaviors according to parameters specifications. We show that for a large and most significant class of tree builder random walks, the process is either null recurrent or trans…
We consider a multidimensional random walk in a product random environment with bounded steps, transience in some spatial direction, and high enough moments on the regeneration time. We prove an invariance principle, or functional central limit theorem, under almost every environment for the diffusively scaled centered walk. The main point behind the invariance principle is that the quenched mean of the walk behaves subdiffusively.
Consider a random walk in an i.i.d. uniformly elliptic environment in dimensions larger than one. In 2002, Sznitman introduced for each $γ\in(0,1)$ the ballisticity condition $(T)_γ$ and the condition $(T')$ defined as the fulfillment of $(T)_γ$ for each $γ\in(0,1)$. Sznitman proved that $(T')$ implies a ballistic law of large numbers. Furthermore, he showed that for all $γ\in (0.5,1)$, $(T)_γ$ is equivalent to $(T')$. Recently, Berger has proved that in dimensions larger than three, for each $γ\in (0,1)$, condition $(T)_γ$ implies a ballistic law of large numbers. On the other hand, Drewitz a…
We study biased random walk on the infinite connected component of supercritical percolation on the integer lattice $\mathbb{Z}^d$ for $d\geq 2$. For this model, Fribergh and Hammond showed the existence of an exponent $γ$ such that: for $γ<1$, the random walk is sub-ballistic (i.e. has zero velocity asymptotically), with polynomial escape rate described by $γ$; whereas for $γ>1$, the random walk is ballistic, with non-zero speed in the direction of the bias. They moreover established, under the usual diffusive scaling about the mean distance travelled by the random walk in the direction of th…
In this work, we discuss certain ballistic random walks in random environments on $\mathbb{Z}^d$, and prove the equivalence between the static and dynamic points of view in dimension $d\geq4$. Using this equivalence, we also prove a version of a local limit theorem which relates the local behavior of the quenched and annealed measures of the random walk by a prefactor.
We study biased random walk on subcritical and supercritical Galton-Watson trees conditioned to survive in the transient, sub-ballistic regime. By considering offspring laws with infinite variance, we extend previously known results for the walk on the supercritical tree and observe new trapping phenomena for the walk on the subcritical tree which, in this case, always yield sub-ballisticity. This is contrary to the walk on the supercritical tree which always has some ballistic phase.
We study the behaviour of a sequence of biased random walks X(i), i>=0 on a sequence of random graphs, where the initial graph is Zd and otherwise the graph for the i-th walk is the trace of the (i - 1)-st walk. The sequence of bias vectors is chosen so that each walk is transient. We prove the aforementioned transience and a law of large numbers, and provide criteria for ballisticity and sub-ballisticity. We give examples of sequences of biases for which each X(i), i>=1 is (transient but) not ballistic, and the limiting graph is an infinite simple (self-avoiding) path. We also give examples f…
We study the quenched behaviour of a perturbed version of the simple symmetric random walk on the set of integers. The random walker moves symmetrically with an exception of some randomly chosen sites where we impose a random drift. We show that if the gaps between the marked sites are i.i.d. and regularly varying with a sufficiently small index, then there is no strong quenched limit laws for the position of the random walker. As a consequence we study the quenched limit laws in the context of weak convergence of random measures.
We consider the small deviation probability for random walk with time-inhomogeneous random environment. Compared with the result in Mogul'ski\uı (1974) for the i.i.d. random walk, the rate is smaller (due to the random environment), which is specified in terms of the quenched and annealed variance.
We consider a one dimensional sub-ballistic random walk evolving in a parametric i.i.d. random environment. We study the asymptotic properties of the maximum likelihood estimator (MLE) of the parameter based on a single observation of the path till the time it reaches a distant site. In that purpose, we adapt the method developed in the ballistic case by Comets et al (2014) and Falconnet, Loukianova and Matias (2014). Using a supplementary assumption due to the specificity of the sub-ballistic regime, we prove consistency and asymptotic normality as the distant site tends to infinity. To empha…
We consider transient one-dimensional random walks in random environment with zero asymptotic speed. An aging phenomenon involving the generalized Arcsine law is proved using the localization of the walk at the foot of "valleys" of height $\log t$. In the quenched setting, we also sharply estimate the distribution of the walk at time $t$.
We consider transient random walks in random environment on Z in the positive speed (ballistic) and critical zero speed regimes. A classical result of Kesten, Kozlov and Spitzer proves that the hitting time of level $n$, after proper centering and normalization, converges to a completely asymmetric stable distribution, but does not describe its scale parameter. Following a previous article by three of the authors, where the (non-critical) zero speed case was dealt with, we give a new proof of this result in the subdiffusive case that provides a complete description of the limit law. The case o…
We consider random walks in a random environment of the type p_0+γξ_z, where p_0 denotes the transition probabilities of a stationary random walk on \BbbZ^d, to nearest neighbors, and ξ_z is an i.i.d. random perturbation. We give an explicit expansion, for small γ, of the asymptotic speed of the random walk under the annealed law, up to order 2. As an application, we construct, in dimension d\ge2, a walk which goes faster than the stationary walk under the mean environment.
We consider a random walk in random environment in the low disorder regime on $\mathbb Z^d$. That is, the probability that the random walk jumps from a site $x$ to a nearest neighboring site $x+e$ is given by $p(e)+εξ(x,e)$, where $p(e)$ is deterministic, $\{\{ξ(x,e):|e|_1=1\}:x\in\mathbb Z^d\}$ are i.i.d. and $ε>0$ is a parameter which is eventually chosen small enough. We establish an asymptotic expansion in $ε$ for the invariant measure of the environmental process whenever a ballisticity condition is satisfied. As an application of our expansion, we derive a numerical expression up to firs…
Unlike classical simple random walks, one-dimensional random walks in random environments (RWRE) are known to have a wide array of potential limiting distributions. Under certain assumptions, however, it is known that CLT-like limiting distributions hold for the walk under both the quenched and averaged measures. We give upper bounds on the rates of convergence for the quenched central limit theorems for both the hitting time and position of the RWRE with polynomial rates of convergence that depend on the distribution on environments.
We characterize ballistic behavior for general i.i.d. random walks in random environments on $\mathbb{Z}$ with bounded jumps. The two characterizations we provide do not use uniform ellipticity conditions. They are natural in the sense that they both relate to formulas for the limiting speed in the nearest-neighbor case. Note: This paper duplicates results from some versions of the preprint "Random walks in Dirichlet random environments on $\mathbb{Z}$ with bounded jumps." (arxiv: 2104.14950). The present paper is being split off for reasons of length, and the plan is to remove these results f…
For a one-dimensional random walk in random scenery (RWRS) on Z, we determine its quenched weak limits by applying Strassen's functional law of the iterated logarithm. As a consequence, conditioned on the random scenery, the one-dimensional RWRS does not converge in law, in contrast with the multi-dimensional case.
Consider a random walk among random conductances on $\mathbb{Z}^d$ with $d\geq 2$. We study the quenched limit law under the usual diffusive scaling of the random walk conditioned to have its first coordinate positive. We show that the conditional limit law is the product of a Brownian meander and a $(d-1)$-dimensional Brownian motion.
We prove a quenched central limit theorem for balanced random walks in time dependent ergodic random environments which is not necessarily nearest-neigbhor. We assume that the environment satisfies appropriate ergodicity and ellipticity conditions. The proof is based on the use of a maximum principle for parabolic difference operators.
We study quenched distributions on random walks in a random potential on integer lattices of arbitrary dimension and with an arbitrary finite set of admissible steps. The potential can be unbounded and can depend on a few steps of the walk. Directed, undirected and stretched polymers, as well as random walk in random environment, are covered. The restriction needed is on the moment of the potential, in relation to the degree of mixing of the ergodic environment. We derive two variational formulas for the limiting quenched free energy and prove a process-level quenched large deviation principle…
We consider random walks in i.i.d. elliptic random environments which are not uniformly elliptic. We introduce a computable condition in dimension $d=2$ and a general condition valid for dimensions $d\ge 2$ expressed in terms of the exit time from a box, which ensure that local trapping would not inhibit a ballistic behavior of the random walk. An important technical innovation related to our computable condition, is the introduction of a geometrical point of view to classify the way in which the random walk can become trapped, either in an edge, a wedge or a square. Furthermore, we prove that…
Annealed functional CLT in the rough path topology is proved for the standard class of ballistic random walks in random environment. Moreover, the `area anomaly', i.e. a deterministic linear correction for the second level iterated integral of the rescaled path, is identified in terms of a stochastic area on a regeneration interval. The main theorem is formulated in more general settings, namely for any discrete process with uniformly bounded increments which admits a regeneration structure where the regeneration times have finite moments. Here the largest finite moment translates into the deg…
In this note, we prove a quenched functional central limit theorem for a biased random walk on a supercritical Galton-Watson tree with leaves. This extends a result of Peres and Zeitouni (2008) where the case without leaves is considered. A conjecture of Ben Arous and Fribergh (2016) suggests an upper bound on the bias which we observe to be sharp.
We prove an almost sure invariance principle for a random walker among i.i.d. conductances in $\Z^d$, $d\geq 2$. We assume conductances are bounded from above but we dot require they are bounded from below.
We prove the almost sure ('quenched') invariance principle for a random walker on an infinite Bernoulli percolation cluster in $\Z^d$ where $d$ is larger or equal than 2.
We discuss the quenched tail estimates for the random walk in random scenery. The random walk is the symmetric nearest neighbor walk and the random scenery is assumed to be independent and identically distributed, non-negative, and has a power law tail. We identify the long time aymptotics of the upper deviation probability of the random walk in quenched random scenery, depending on the tail of scenery distribution and the amount of the deviation. The result is in turn applied to the tail estimates for a random walk in random conductance which has a layered structure.
We prove a quenched local central limit theorem for continuous-time random walks in $\mathbb Z^d, d\ge 2$, in a uniformly-elliptic time-dependent balanced random environment which is ergodic under space-time shifts. We also obtain Gaussian upper and lower bounds for quenched and (positive and negative) moment estimates of the transition probabilities and asymptotics of the discrete Green function.
It is well known that random walks in one dimensional random environment can exhibit subdiffusive behavior due to presence of traps. In this paper we show that the passage times of different traps are asymptotically independent exponential random variables with parameters forming, asymptotically, a Poisson process. This allows us to prove weak quenched limit theorems in the subdiffusive regime where the contribution of traps plays the dominating role.
We consider the simple random walk on the graph corresponding to a Penrose tiling. We prove that the path distribution of the walk converges weakly to that of a non-degenerate Brownian motion for almost every Penrose tiling with respect to the appropriate invariant measure on the set of tilings. Our tool for this is the corrector method.
Consider a random walk in a uniformly elliptic i.i.d. random environment in dimensions $d\ge 2$. In 2002, Sznitman introduced for each $γ\in (0,1)$ the ballisticity conditions $(T)_γ$ and $(T'),$ the latter being defined as the fulfilment of $(T)_γ$ for all $γ\in (0,1).$ He proved that $(T')$ implies ballisticity and that for each $γ\in (0.5,1),$ $(T)_γ$ is equivalent to $(T')$. It is conjectured that this equivalence holds for all $γ\in (0,1).$ Here we prove that for $γ\in (γ_d,1),$ where $γ_d$ is a dimension dependent constant taking values in the interval $(0.366,0.388),$ $(T)_γ$ is equival…
We consider the rates of convergence of the quenched central limit theorem for hitting times of one-dimensional random walks in a random environment. Previous results had identified polynomial upper bounds for the rates of decay which are sometimes slower than $n^{-1/2}$ (the optimal rate in the classical Berry-Esseen estimates). Here we prove that the previous upper bounds are in fact the best possible polynomial rates for the quenched CLT.
We consider simple random walks on Delaunay triangulations generated by point processes in $\mathbb{R}^d$. Under suitable assumptions on the point processes, we show that the random walk satisfies an almost sure (or quenched) invariance principle. This invariance principle holds for point processes which have clustering or repulsiveness properties including Poisson point processes, Mat{é}rn cluster and Mat{é}rn hardcore processes. The method relies on the decomposition of the process into a martingale part and a corrector which is proved to be negligible at the diffusive scale.
We consider an i.i.d. random environment with a strong form of transience on the two dimensional integer lattice. Namely, the walk always moves forward in the y-direction. We prove a functional CLT for the quenched expected position of the random walk indexed by its level crossing times. We begin with a variation of the Martingale Central Limit Theorem. The main part of the paper checks the conditions of the theorem for our problem.
We prove the quenched version of the central limit theorem for the displacement of a random walk in doubly stochastic random environment, under the $H_{-1}$-condition, with slightly stronger, $L^{2+\varepsilon}$ (rather than $L^2$) integrability condition on the stream tensor. On the way we extend Nash's moment bound to the non-reversible, divergence-free drift case.
We consider a random walk in $\mathbb Z^d$ which jumps from a site $x$ to a nearest neighboring site $x+e$ (where $e\in V:=\{x\in\mathbb Z^d: |x|_1=1\}$) with probability $p_0(e)+εξ(x,e)$. Here $\sum_e p_0(e)=1$, $p_0(e)> 0$, $ε$ is a small parameter while $\{\{ξ(x,e):e\in V\}: x\in\mathbb Z^d\}$ are i.i.d. random variables with an absolute value bounded by $1$. We review recent progress in the non-vanishing velocity case, giving an asymptotic expansion in $ε$ of the invariant measure of the environmental process, and bounds for the velocity.
We consider a random walk in a random potential on a square lattice of arbitrary dimension. The potential is a function of an ergodic environment and some steps of the walk. The potential can be unbounded, but it is subject to a moment assumption whose strictness is tied to the mixing of the environment, the best case being the i.i.d. environment. We prove that the infinite volume quenched point-to-point free energy exists and has a variational formula in terms of an entropy. We establish regularity properties of the point-to-point free energy, as a function of the potential and as a function …
We study a one-dimensional random walk among random conductances, with unbounded jumps. Assuming the ergodicity of the collection of conductances and a few other technical conditions (uniform ellipticity and polynomial bounds on the tails of the jumps) we prove a quenched conditional invariance principle for the random walk, under the condition that it remains positive until time $n$. As a corollary of this result, we study the effect of conditioning the random walk to exceed level $n$ before returning to 0 as $n\to \infty$.
We consider random walk on dynamical percolation on the discrete torus $\mathbb{Z}_n^d$. In previous work, mixing times of this process for $p<p_c(\mathbb{Z}^d)$ were obtained in the annealed setting where one averages over the dynamical percolation environment. Here we study exit times in the quenched setting, where we condition on a typical dynamical percolation environment. We obtain an upper bound for all $p$ which for $p<p_c$ matches the known lower bound.
We consider a bounded step size random walk in an ergodic random environment with some ellipticity, on an integer lattice of arbitrary dimension. We prove a level 3 large deviation principle, under almost every environment, with rate function related to a relative entropy.
