Central limit theorems for supercritical branching Markov processes

In this paper we establish spatial central limit theorems for a large class of supercritical branching Markov processes with general spatial-dependent branching mechanisms. These are generalizations of the spatial central limit theorems proved in [1] for branching OU processes with binary branching mechanisms. Compared with the results of [1], our central limit theorems are more satisfactory in the sense that the normal random variables in our theorems are non-degenerate.     

The multitype branching diffusion

The multitype branching diffusion (MBD) is considered. A review of the general theory of multitype point processes is given in Section 2, and spatial central limit theorems for homogeneous infinitely divisible processes are proven in Section 3. In Section 4, the MBD is defined, and equations for its first four factorial moment density functions are found. The behaviour of the mean and covariance functionals as time approaches infinity is studied. The MBD with immigration (MBDI) is introduced in Section 5. The existence of a steady state is proven, and spatial central limit theorems are developed for the MBDI.     

Limit theorems for flows of branching processes

We construct two kinds of stochastic flows of discrete Galton-Watson branching processes. Some scaling limit theorems for the flows are proved, which lead to local and nonlocal branching superprocesses over the positive half line.     

Limit theorems for sums determined by branching and other exponentially growing processes

A branching process counted by a random characteristic has been defined as a process which at time t is the superposition of individual stochastic processes evaluated at the actual ages of the individuals of a branching population. Now characteristics which may depend not only on age but also on absolute time are considered. For supercritical processes a distributional limit theorem is proved, which implies that classical limit theorems for sums of characteristics evaluated at a fixed age point transfer into limit theorems for branching processes counted by these characteristics. A point is that, though characteristics of different individuals should be independent, the characteristics of an individual may well interplay with the reproduction of the latter. The result requires a sort of L^p-continuity for some 1 ? p ? 2. Its proof turns out to be valid for a wider class of processes than branching ones.For the case p = 1 a number of Poisson type limits follow and for p = 2 some normality approximations are concluded. For example results are obtained for processes for rare events, the age of the oldest individual, and the error of population predictions.This work has been supported by a grant from the Swedish Natural Science Research Council.     

The multitype branching random walk, II

Limit theorems for the multitype branching random walk as n → ∞ are given (n is the generation number) in the case in which the branching process has a mean matrix which is not positive regular. In particular, the existence of steady state distributions is proven in the subcritical case with immigration, and in the critical case with initial Poisson random fields of particles. In the supercritical case, analogues of the limit theorems of Kesten and Stigum are given.     

The age of a Markov process

The concept of a limiting conditional age distribution of a continuous time Markov process whose state space is the set of non-negative integers and for which {0} is absorbing is defined as the weak limit as t→∞ of the last time before t an associated “return” Markov process exited from {0} conditional on the state, j, of this process at t. It is shown that this limit exists and is non-defective if the return process is ρ-recurrent and satisfies the strong ratio limit property. As a preliminary to the proof of the main results some general results are established on the representation of the ρ-invariant measure and function of a Markov process. The conditions of the main results are shown to be satisfied by the return process constructed from a Markov branching process and by birth and death processes. Finally, a number of limit theorems for the limiting age as j→∞ are given.     

Functional Central Limit Theorems for Supercritical Superprocesses

In this paper, we establish some functional central limit theorems for a large class of general supercritical superprocesses with spatially dependent branching mechanisms satisfying a second moment condition. In the particular case when the state \(E\) is a finite set and the underlying motion is an irreducible Markov chain on \(E\), our results are superprocess analogs of the functional central limit theorems of Janson (Stoch. Process. Appl. 110:177–245, 2004) for supercritical multitype branching processes. The results of this paper are refinements of the central limit theorems in Ren et al. (Stoch. Process. Appl. 125:428–457, 2015).     

Parameter estimation in two-type continuous-state branching processes with immigration

We study the parameter estimation of two-type continuous-state branching processes with immigration based on low frequency observations at equidistant time points. The ergodicity of the processes is proved. The estimators are based on the minimization of a sum of squared deviation about conditional expectations. We also establish the strong consistency and central limit theorems of the conditional least squares estimators and the weighted conditional least squares estimators of the drift and diffusion coefficients based on low frequency observations.     

General linear-fractional branching processes with discrete time

We study a linear-fractional Bienaymé–Galton–Watson process with a general type space. The corresponding tree contour process is described by an alternating random walk with the downward jumps having a geometric distribution. This leads to the linear-fractional distribution formula for an arbitrary observation time, which allows us to establish transparent limit theorems for the subcritical, critical and supercritical cases. Our results extend recent findings for the linear-fractional branching processes with countably many types.     

Simulations and a conditional limit theorem for intermediately subcritical branching processes in random environment

Intermediately subcritical branching processes in random environment are at the borderline between two subcritical regimes and exhibit particularly rich behavior. In this paper, we prove a functional limit theorem for these processes. It is discussed together with two other recently proved limit theorems for the intermediately subcritical case and illustrated by several computer simulations.     

Conditional limit theorems for critical continuous-state branching processes

We study the conditional limit theorems for critical continuous-state branching processes with branching mechanism ψ(λ) = λ1+αL(1/λ), where α∈ [0, 1] and L is slowly varying at ∞. We prove that if α∈(0, 1], there are norming constants Qt→ 0(as t ↑ +∞) such that for every x 0, Px(QtXt∈·| Xt 0)converges weakly to a non-degenerate limit. The converse assertion is also true provided the regularity of ψ at0. We give a conditional limit theorem for the case α = 0. The limit theorems we obtain in this paper allow infinite variance of the branching process.     

Evolution of branching processes in a random environment

This review paper presents the known results on the asymptotics of the survival probability and limit theorems conditioned on survival of critical and subcritical branching processes in independent and identically distributed random environments. This is a natural generalization of the time-inhomogeneous branching processes. The key assumptions of the family of population models in question are nonoverlapping generations and discrete time. The reader should be aware of the fact that there are many very interesting papers covering other issues in the theory of branching processes in random environments which are not mentioned here.     

Almost critical branching processes and limit theorems

We study almost critical branching processes with infinitely increasing immigration and prove functional limit theorems for these processes. Translated from Ukrains’kyi Matematychnyi Zhurnal, Vol. 61, No. 1, pp. 127–133, January, 2009.     

Classical limit theorems for measure-valued Markov processes

Laws of large numbers, central limit theorems, and laws of the iterated logarithm are obtained for discrete and continuous time Markov processes whose state space is a set of measures. These results apply to each measure-valued stochastic process itself and not simply to its real-valued functionals.     

Occupation Time Fluctuations of Weakly Degenerate Branching Systems

We establish limit theorems for rescaled occupation time fluctuations of a sequence of branching particle systems in ? ^d with anisotropic space motion and weakly degenerate splitting ability. In the case of large dimensions, our limit processes lead to a new class of operator-scaling Gaussian random fields with nonstationary increments. In the intermediate and critical dimensions, the limit processes have spatial structures analogous to (but more complicated than) those arising from the critical branching particle system without degeneration considered by Bojdecki et?al. (Stoch. Process. Appl. 116:1?C18 and 19?C35, 2006). Due to the weakly degenerate branching ability, temporal structures of the limit processes in all three cases are different from those obtained by Bojdecki et?al. (Stoch. Process. Appl. 116:1?C18 and 19?C35, 2006).     

Weak Convergence Results for Multiple Generations of a Branching Process

We establish limit theorems involving weak convergence of multiple generations of critical and supercritical branching processes. These results arise naturally when dealing with the joint asymptotic behavior of functionals defined in terms of several generations of such processes. Applications of our main result include a functional central limit theorem (CLT), a Darling–Erdös result, and an extremal process result. The limiting process for our functional CLT is an infinite dimensional Brownian motion with sample paths in the infinite product space (C ₀[0,1])^∞, with the product topology, or in Banach subspaces of (C ₀[0,1])^∞ determined by norms related to the distribution of the population size of the branching process. As an application of this CLT we obtain a central limit theorem for ratios of weighted sums of generations of a branching processes, and also to various maximums of these generations. The Darling–Erdös result and the application to extremal distributions also include infinite-dimensional limit laws. Some branching process examples where the CLT fails are also included.     

Small value probabilities for continuous state branching processes with immigration

We consider the small value probability of supercritical continuous state branching processes with immigration.From Pinsky(1972) it is known that under regularity condition on the branching mechanism and immigration mechanism,the normalized population size converges to a non-degenerate finite and positive limit W as t tends to infinity.We provide sharp estimate on asymptotic behavior of P(W≤ε) as ε→ 0+ by studying the Laplace transform of W.Without immigration,we also give a simpler proof for the small value probability in the non-subordinator case via the prolific backbone decomposition.     

Ratio limit theorems for branching Ornstein-Uhlenbeck processes

We prove ratio limit theorems for critical ano supercritical branching Ornstein-Uhlenbeck processes. A finite first moment of the offspring distribution {p_n} assures convergence in probability for supercritical processes and conditional convergence in probability for critical processes. If even Σp_nnlog⁺log⁺n< ∞, then almost sure convergence obtains in the supercritical case.     

Limit distributions for generalized Jiřina processes with immigration

A relationship between continuous state population-size-dependent branching (CSDB) processes with or without immigration and discrete state population-size-dependent branching (DSDB) processes with or without immigration is established via the representation of the former. Based on this relationship, some limiting distributions of CSDB processes with or without immigration are obtained.     

On Renewal Matrices Connected with Branching Processes with Tails of Distributions of Different Orders

We study irreducible renewal matrices generated by matrices whose rows are proportional to various distribution functions. Such matrices arise in studies of multi-dimensional critical Bellman–Harris branching processes. Proofs of limit theorems for such branching processes are based on asymptotic properties of a chosen family of renewal matrices. In the theory of branching processes, unsolved problems are known that correspond to the case in which the tails of some of the above mentioned distribution functions are integrable, while the other distributions lack this property.We assume that the heaviest tails are regularly varying at the infinity with parameter ?β ∈ [?1, 0) and asymptotically proportional, while the other tails are infinitesimal with respect to them. Under a series of additional conditions, we describe asymptotic properties of the first and second order increments for the renewal matrices.