A family of diffusion processes on Sierpinski carpets

We construct a family of diffusions P ^α = {P ^x} on the d-dimensional Sierpinski carpet F^. The parameter α ranges over d _H < α < ∞, where d _H = log(3 ^d − 1)/log 3 is the Hausdorff dimension of the d-dimensional Sierpinski carpet F^. These diffusions P ^α are reversible with invariant measures μ = μ^[α]. Here, μ are Radon measures whose topological supports are equal to F^ and satisfy self-similarity in the sense that μ(3A) = 3^α·μ(A) for all A∈ℬ(F^). In addition, the diffusion is self-similar and invariant under local weak translations (cell translations) of the Sierpinski carpet. The transition density p = p(t, x, y) is locally uniformly positive and satisfies a global Gaussian upper bound. In spite of these well-behaved properties, the diffusions are different from Barlow-Bass' Brownian motions on the Sierpinski carpet. Received: 30 September 1999 / Revised version: 15 June 2000 / Published online: 24 January 2000     

One-point extensions of Markov processes by darning

This paper is a continuation of the works by Fukushima–Tanaka (Ann Inst Henri Poincaré Probab Stat 41: 419–459, 2005) and Chen–Fukushima–Ying (Stochastic Analysis and Application, p.153–196. The Abel Symposium, Springer, Heidelberg) on the study of one-point extendability of a pair of standard Markov processes in weak duality. In this paper, general conditions to ensure such an extension are given. In the symmetric case, characterizations of the one-point extensions are given in terms of their Dirichlet forms and in terms of their L ²-infinitesimal generators. In particular, a generalized notion of flux is introduced and is used to characterize functions in the domain of the L ²-infinitesimal generator of the extended process. An important role in our investigation is played by the α-order approaching probability u _α . The research of Z.-Q. Chen is supported in part by NSF Grant DMS-0600206. The research of M. Fukushima is supported in part by Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research of MEXT No.19540125.     

Brownian bridge on hyperbolic spaces and on homogeneous trees

Let B be the Brownian motion on a noncompact non Euclidean rank one symmetric space H. A typical examples is an hyperbolic space H _n , n > 2. For ν > 0, the Brownian bridge B ^(ν) of length ν on H is the process B _t , 0 ≤t≤ν, conditioned by B ₀ = B _ν = o, where o is an origin in H. It is proved that the process converges weakly to the Brownian excursion when ν→ + ∞ (the Brownian excursion is the radial part of the Brownian Bridge on ℝ³). The same result holds for the simple random walk on an homogeneous tree. Received: 4 December 1998 / Revised version: 22 January 1999     

Interacting Fisher–Wright diffusions in a catalytic medium

We study the longtime behaviour of interacting systems in a randomly fluctuating (space–time) medium and focus on models from population genetics. There are two prototypes of spatial models in population genetics: spatial branching processes and interacting Fisher–Wright diffusions. Quite a bit is known on spatial branching processes where the local branching rate is proportional to a random environment (catalytic medium). Here we introduce a model of interacting Fisher–Wright diffusions where the local resampling rate (or genetic drift) is proportional to a catalytic medium. For a particular choice of the medium, we investigate the longtime behaviour in the case of nearest neighbour migration on the d-dimensional lattice. While in classical homogeneous systems the longtime behaviour exhibits a dichotomy along the transience/recurrence properties of the migration, now a more complicated behaviour arises. It turns out that resampling models in catalytic media show phenomena that are new even compared with branching in catalytic medium. Received: 15 November 1999 / Revised version: 16 June 2000 / Published online: 6 April 2001     

Anisotropic branching random walks on homogeneous trees

Symmetric branching random walk on a homogeneous tree exhibits a weak survival phase: For parameter values in a certain interval, the population survives forever with positive probability, but, with probability one, eventually vacates every finite subset of the tree. In this phase, particle trails must converge to the geometric boundaryΩ of the tree. The random subset Λ of the boundary consisting of all ends of the tree in which the population survives, called the limit set of the process, is shown to have Hausdorff dimension no larger than one half the Hausdorff dimension of the entire geometric boundary. Moreover, there is strict inequality at the phase separation point between weak and strong survival except when the branching random walk is isotropic. It is further shown that in all cases there is a distinguished probability measure μ supported by Ω such that the Hausdorff dimension of Λ∩Ω_μ, where Ω_μ is the set of μ-generic points of Ω, converges to one half the Hausdorff dimension of Ω_μ at the phase separation point. Exact formulas are obtained for the Hausdorff dimensions of Λ and Λ∩Ω_μ, and it is shown that the log Hausdorff dimension of Λ has critical exponent 1/2 at the phase separation point. Received: 30 June 1998 / Revised version: 10 March 1999     

Wiener’s test for super-Brownian motion and the Brownian snake

We prove a Wiener-type criterion for super-Brownian motion and the Brownian snake.If F is a Borel subset of ℝ ^d and x ∈ ℝ ^d , we provide a necessary and sufficientcondition for super-Brownian motion started at δ _x to immediately hit the set F. Equivalently, this condition is necessary and sufficient for the hitting time of F by theBrownian snake with initial point x to be 0. A key ingredient of the proof isan estimate showing that the hitting probability of F is comparable, up to multiplicative constants,to the relevant capacity of F. This estimate, which is of independent interest, refines previous results due to Perkins and Dynkin. An important role is played by additivefunctionals of the Brownian snake, which are investigated here via the potentialtheory of symmetric Markov processes. As a direct application of our probabilisticresults, we obtain a necessary and sufficient condition for the existence in a domain D of a positivesolution of the equation Δ; u = u ² which explodes at a given point of ∂ D. Received: 5 January 1996 / In revised form: 30 October 1996     

Diffusion processes on graphs: stochastic differential equations,large deviation principle

Ito's rule is established for the diffusion processes on the graphs. We also consider a family of diffusions processes with small noise on a graph. Large deviation principle is proved for these diffusion processes and their local times at the vertices. Received: 12 February 1997 / Revised version: 3 March 1999     

Pathwise uniqueness for perturbed versions of Brownian motion and reflected Brownian motion

Any solution of the functional equation

Martin–Kuramochi boundary and reflecting symmetric diffusion

In this paper, we will give sufficient conditions for the existence of the reflecting diffusion process on a locally compact space. In constructing reflecting diffusion process, we consider the corresponding Martin–Kuramochi boundary as the reflecting barrier and introduce the notion of strong (ℰ, u)-Caccioppoli set. Our method covers reflecting diffusion processes with diffusion coefficient degenerating on the boundary. Received: 23 June 1997 / Revised version: 28 September 1991/ Published online: 14 June 2000     

On a semigroup generated by a convex combination of two Feller generators

Let be a locally compact Hausdorff space. Let A and B be two generators of Feller semigroups in with related Feller processes {X _A (t), t ≥ 0} and {X _B (t), t ≥ 0} and let α and β be two non-negative continuous functions on with α + β = 1. Assume that the closure C of C ₀ = αA + βB with generates a Feller semigroup {T _C (t), t ≥ 0} in . It is natural to think of a related Feller process {X _C (t), t ≥ 0} as that evolving according to the following heuristic rules. Conditional on being at a point , with probability α(p) the process behaves like {X _A (t), t ≥ 0} and with probability β(p) it behaves like {X _B (t), t ≥ 0}. We provide an approximation of {T _C (t), t ≥ 0} via a sequence of semigroups acting in that supports this interpretation. This work is motivated by the recent model of stochastic gene expression due to Lipniacki et al. [17].     

Three-term asymptotics for the boundary layers of semilinear elliptic eigenvalue problems

We consider the nonlinear eigenvalue problem −Δu=λ f(u) in Ω u=0 on ∂Ω, where Ω is a ball or an annulus in R^N (N ≥ 2) and λ > 0 is a parameter. It is known that if λ >> 1, then the corresponding positive solution u_λ develops boundary layers under some conditions on f. We establish the asymptotic formulas for the slope of the boundary layers of u_λ with the exact second term and the ‘optimal’ estimate of the third term.     

Asymptotic separation for independent trajectories of Markov processes

We say that n independent trajectories ξ₁(t),…,ξ _n (t) of a stochastic process ξ(t)on a metric space are asymptotically separated if, for some ɛ > 0, the distance between ξ _i (t _i ) and ξ _j (t _j ) is at least ɛ, for some indices i, j and for all large enough t ₁,…,t _n , with probability 1. We prove sufficient conitions for asymptotic separationin terms of the Green function and the transition function, for a wide class of Markov processes. In particular,if ξ is the diffusion on a Riemannian manifold generated by the Laplace operator Δ, and the heat kernel p(t, x, y) satisfies the inequality p(t, x, x) ≤ Ct ^−ν/2 then n trajectories of ξ are asymptotically separated provided . Moreover, if for some α∈(0, 2)then n trajectories of ξ^(α) are asymptotically separated, where ξ^(α) is the α-process generated by −(−Δ)^α/2. Received: 10 June 1999 / Revised version: 20 April 2000 / Published online: 14 December 2000 RID="*" ID="*" Supported by the EPSRC Research Fellowship B/94/AF/1782 RID="**" ID="**" Partially supported by the EPSRC Visiting Fellowship GR/M61573     

Growth and Hölder conditions for the sample paths of Feller processes

Let (A,D(A)) be the infinitesimal generator of a Feller semigroup such that C _c ^∞(ℝ ⁿ )⊂D(A) and A|C _c ^∞(ℝ ⁿ ) is a pseudo-differential operator with symbol −p(x,ξ) satisfying |p(•,ξ)|_∞≤c(1+|ξ|²) and |Imp(x,ξ)|≤c ₀Rep(x,ξ). We show that the associated Feller process {X _t } _{t ≥0} on ℝ ⁿ is a semimartingale, even a homogeneous diffusion with jumps (in the sense of [21]), and characterize the limiting behaviour of its trajectories as t→0 and ∞. To this end, we introduce various indices, e.g., β_∞ ^x :={λ>0:lim _{|ξ|→∞ | x − y |≤2/|ξ|}|p(y,ξ)|/|ξ|^λ=0} or δ_∞ ^x :={λ>0:liminf _{|ξ|→∞ | x − y |≤2/|ξ| |ε|≤1}|p(y,|ξ|ε)|/|ξ|^λ=0}, and obtain a.s. (ℙ ^x ) that lim _{t →0} t ^−1/λ _{s ≤ t} |X _s −x|=0 or ∞ according to λ>β_∞ ^x or λ<δ_∞ ^x . Similar statements hold for the limit inferior and superior, and also for t→∞. Our results extend the constant-coefficient (i.e., Lévy) case considered by W. Pruitt [27]. Received: 21 July 1997 / Revised version: 26 January 1998     

Smoothing properties of transition semigroups relative to SDEs with values in Banach spaces

In the present paper we consider the transition semigroup P _t related to some stochastic reaction-diffusion equations with the nonlinear term f having polynomial growth and satisfying some dissipativity conditions. We are proving that it has a regularizing effect in the Banach space of continuous functions , where ⊂ℝ ^d is a bounded open set. In L ²() the only result proved is the strong Feller property, for d=1. Here we are able to prove that if f∈C ^∞(ℝ) and d≤3, then for any and t>0. An important application is to the study of the ergodic properties of the system. These results are also of interest for some problem in stochastic control. Received: 20 August 1997 / Revised version: 27 May 1998     

The central limit theorem for Markov chains with normal transition operators, started at a point

The central limit theorem and the invariance principle, proved by Kipnis and Varadhan for reversible stationary ergodic Markov chains with respect to the stationary law, are established with respect to the law of the chain started at a fixed point, almost surely, under a slight reinforcing of their spectral assumption. The result is valid also for stationary ergodic chains whose transition operator is normal. Received: 28 March 2000 / Revised version: 25 July 2000 /?Published online: 15 February 2001     

Points de croissance des processus de Lévy et théorie générale des processus

Summary. We prove a conjecture of J. Bertoin: a Lévy process has increase times if and only if the integral is finite, where G and H are the distribution functions of the minimum and the maximum of the Lévy process killed at an independent exponential time. The “if” part of the statement had been obtained before by R. Doney. Our proof uses different techniques, from potential theory and the general theory of processes, and is self-contained. Our results also show that if P(X _t <0)≤1/2 for all t small enough, then the process does not have increase times.

Received: 4 May 1995/In revised form: 6 May 1997     

Rational Lagrangian fibrations on punctual Hilbert schemes of K3 surfaces

A rational Lagrangian fibration f on an irreducible symplectic variety V is a rational map which is birationally equivalent to a regular surjective morphism with Lagrangian fibers. By analogy with K3 surfaces, it is natural to expect that a rational Lagrangian fibration exists if and only if V has a divisor D with Bogomolov–Beauville square 0. This conjecture is proved in the case when V is the Hilbert scheme of d points on a generic K3 surface S of genus g under the hypothesis that its degree 2g−2 is a square times 2d−2. The construction of f uses a twisted Fourier–Mukai transform which induces a birational isomorphism of V with a certain moduli space of twisted sheaves on another K3 surface M, obtained from S as its Fourier–Mukai partner.