Essential Spanning Forests and Electrical Networks on Groups

Let be a Cayley graph of a finitely generated group G. Subgraphs which contain all vertices of , have no cycles, and no finite connected components are called essential spanning forests. The set of all such subgraphs can be endowed with a compact topology, and G acts on by translations. We define a uniform G-invariant probability measure on show that is mixing, and give a sufficient condition for directional tail triviality. For non-cocompact Fuchsian groups we show how can be computed on cylinder sets. We obtain as a corollary, that the tail -algebra is trivial, and that the rate of convergence to mixing is exponential. The transfer-current function (an analogue to the Green function), is computed explicitly for the Modular and Hecke groups.     

Renewal Theorems for Singular Differential Operators

Let * be the convolution on M( ₊) associated with a second order singular differential operator L on ]0, +[. If is a probability measure on ₊ with suitable moment conditions, we study how to normalize the measures * ⁿ ; n } (resp. ) in order to get vague convergence if n+ (resp. x+). The results depend on the asymptotic drift of the operator L and on a precise study of the asymptotic behaviour of its eigenfunctions.     

On the Existence of <Emphasis Type="Italic">φ</Emphasis>-Moments of the Limit of a Normalized Supercritical Galton–Watson Process

Let (Z _n ) _{n 0} be a supercritical Galton–Watson process with finite re-production mean  and normalized limit W=lim _n ^–n Z _n . Let further : [0,) [0,) be a convex differentiable function with (0)=(0)=0 and such that ( ) is convex with concave derivative for some n 0. By using convex function inequalities due to Topchii and Vatutin, and Burkholder, Davis and Gundy, we prove that 0 < E (W) < if, and only if, , where

Packing Measure and Dimension of Random Fractals

We consider random fractals generated by random recursive constructions. We prove that the box-counting and packing dimensions of these random fractals, K, equals , their almost sure Hausdorff dimension. We show that some almost deterministic conditions known to ensure that the Hausdorff measure satisfies also imply that the packing measure satisfies 0< . When these conditions are not satisfied, it is known . Correspondingly, we show that in this case , provided a random strong open set condition is satisfied. We also find gauge functions (t) so that the -packing measure is finite.     

Rates of Decay and h-Processes for One Dimensional Diffusions Conditioned on Non-Absorption

Let (X _t ) be a one dimensional diffusion corresponding to the operator , starting from x>0 and T ₀ be the hitting time of 0. Consider the family of positive solutions of the equation with (0, ), where . We show that the distribution of the h-process induced by any such is , for a suitable sequence of stopping times (S _M : M0) related to which converges to with M. We also give analytical conditions for , where is the smallest point of increase of the spectral measure associated to .     

Divergence of a Random Walk Through Deterministic and Random Subsequences

Let {S _n} _n0 be a random walk on the line. We give criteria for the existence of a nonrandom sequence n _i for which respectively We thereby obtain conditions for to be a strong limit point of {S _n} or {S _n /n}. The first of these properties is shown to be equivalent to for some sequence a _i , where T(a) is the exit time from the interval [–a,a]. We also obtain a general equivalence between and for an increasing function fand suitable sequences n _i and a _i. These sorts of properties are of interest in sequential analysis. Known conditions for and (divergence through the whole sequence n) are also simplified.     

Limit theorems for compact two-point homogeneous spaces of large dimensions

Let be the field , , or of real dimension . For each dimensiond2, we study isotropic random walks(Y ₁)₁0 on the projective space with natural metricD where the random walk starts at some with jumps at each step of a size depending ond. Then the random variablesX ₁ ^d :=cosD(Y ₁ ^d ,x ₀ ^d ) form a Markov chain on [–1, 1] whose transition probabilities are related to Jacobi convolutions on [–1, 1]. We prove that, ford, the random variables (vd/2)(X _l(d) ^d +1) tend in distribution to a noncentral ²-distribution where the noncentrality parameter depends on relations between the numbers of steps and the jump sizes. We also derive another limit theorem for as well as thed-spheresS ^d ford.     

Phase retrieval for probability measures on abelian groups

IfX is a locally compact abelian group, a probability measure onX and its Fourier transform, the mapping | | is obviously not injective. The aim of this article is to find conditions under which the identification of given | | is possible up to a shift and a central symmetry.Research partially supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation.     

Multiple Wick Product Chaos Processes

Let u(x) xR ^q be a symmetric nonnegative definite function which is bounded outside of all neighborhoods of zero but which may have u(0)=. Let p _x, (·) be the density of an R ^q valued canonical normal random variable with mean x and variance and let {G _x, ; (x, )R ^q ×[0,1 ]} be the mean zero Gaussian process with covariance

Integration by parts for a Lie group valued Brownian motion

LetG be a Lie group ofd×d matrices and be theLLie algebra ofG. We choose some Euclidean norm on , and an orthonormal basis (D ₁,...D _m ) relative to it. Let be the corresponding left invariant vector fields onG. In this paper we derive an integration by parts formula for aG-valued Brownian motion corresponding to the Laplacian .     

Sufficient Conditions for the Existence of Disintegrations

Let be a probability space and a partition of . A necessary and sufficient condition is given for the existence of a -additive and measurable disintegration of P on . It is also shown that P admits a -additive (but not measurable) disintegration on whenever is a standard space and the set (₁, ₂):₁ and ₂ are in the same element of } is coanalytic in ×. Finally, sufficient statistics (in the classical Fisherian sense) are investigated by using -additive disintegrations as conditional probabilities.     

On the Weak Limiting Behavior of Almost Surely Convergent Row Sums from Infinite Arrays of Rowwise Independent Random Elements in Banach Spaces

For an array {V _nk ,k1,n1} of rowwise independent random elements in a real separable Banach space with almost surely convergent row sums , we provide criteria for S _n –A _n to be stochastically bounded or for the weak law of large numbers to hold where {A _n ,n1} is a (nonrandom) sequence in .     

Compact Laws of the Iterated Logarithm for B-Valued Random Variables with Two-Dimensional Indices

Let be a real separable Banach space and {X, X _{n, m}; (n, m) N ²} B-valued i.i.d. random variables. Set . In this paper, the compact law of the iterated logarithm, CLIL(D), for B-valued random variables with two-dimensional indices ranging over a subset D of N ² is studied. There is a gap between the moment conditions for CLIL(N ¹) and those for CLIL(N ²). The main result of this paper fills this gap by presenting necessary and sufficient conditions for the sequence to be almost surely conditionally compact in B, where, for 0, 1 r 2, N ^r (, ) = {(n, m) N ²; n m n exp{(log n) ^r–1 (n)}} and (·) is any positive, continuous, nondecreasing function such that (t)/(log log t) is eventually decreasing as t , for some > 0.     

Nontrivial Phase Transition in a Continuum Mirror Model

We consider a Poisson point process on with intensity , and at each Poisson point we place a two sided mirror of random length and orientation. The length and orientation of a mirror is taken from a fixed distribution, and is independent of the lengths and orientations of the other mirrors. We ask if light shone from the origin will remain in a bounded region. We find that there exists a with 0 < < for which, if < , light leaving the origin in all but a countable number of directions will travel arbitrariliy far from the origin with positive probability. Also, if > , light from the origin will almost surely remain in a bounded region.     

Besov Regularity of Stochastic Integrals with Respect to the Fractional Brownian Motion with Parameter H > 1/2

Let {B _t ,t[0,1]} be a fractional Brownian motion with Hurst parameter H > 1/2. Using the techniques of the Malliavin calculus we show that the trajectories of the indefinite divergence integral ^t ₀ u _s B _s belong to the Besov space _p,q for all , provided the integrand u belongs to the space . Moreover, if u is bounded and belongs to for some even integer p2 and for some large enough, then the trajectories of the indefinite divergence integral ^t ₀ u _s B _s belong to the Besov space _p, ^H .     

Optimal Upper and Lower Bounds for the Upper Tails of Compound Poisson Processes

A compound Poisson process is of the form where Z, Z ₁, Z ₂, are arbitrary i.i.d. random variables and N is an independent Poisson random variable with parameter . This paper identifies the degree of precision that can be achieved when using exponential bounds together with a single truncation to approximate . The truncation level introduced depends only on and Z and not on the overall exceedance level a.     

Markov Processes with Equal Capacities

Let X and be transient standard Markov processes in weak duality with respect to a -finite measure m. Let (Y, , ) be a second dual pair with the same state space E as (X, , m). Let Cap ^X and Cap ^Y be the 0-order capacities associated with (X, , m) and (Y, , ), and let V and denote the potential kernels for Y and . Assume that singletons are polar with respect to both X and Y, and that semipolar sets are of capacity zero for both dual pairs. We show that if Cap ^X (B)=Cap ^Y (B) for every Borel subset of E then there is a strictly increasing continuous additive functional D=(D _t) _t0 of (X, , m) such that

Rates of convergence in the operator-stable limit theorem

Suppose that the ^d -valued random vector is strictly operator-stable in the sense that , the characteristic function of , satisfies for everyt<0, for some invertible linear operatorB on ^d . Suppose also that for the i.i.d. random vectors {X _i } in ^d , . In the present paper, we study the rates of convergence of this operator-stable limit theorem in terms of several probability metrics. A new type of ideal metrics suitable for this rate-of-convergence problem is introduced.This research was partially supported by NSF, Grant DMS-9103452 and NATO, Grant CRG900798.     

Small Ball Estimates in <Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis>-Variation for Stable Processes

Let Z _t , t 0 be a strictly stable process on with index (0, 2]. We prove that for every p > , there exists = _{, p} and such that

The Expected Number of Local Maxima of a Random Algebraic Polynomial

In this work we obtain an asymptotic estimate for the expected number of maxima of the random algebraic polynomial , where a _j (j=0, 1,...,n–1) are independent, normally distributed random variables with mean and variance one. It is shown that for nonzero , the expected number of maxima is asymptotic to log n, when n is large.