Critical branching in a highly fluctuating random medium

Summary A model of one-dimensional critical branching (superprocess) is constructed in a random medium fluctuating both in time and space. The medium describes a moving system of point catalysts, and branching occurs only in the presence of these catalysts. Although the medium has an infinite overall density, the clumping features of the branching model can be exhibited by rescaling time, space, and mass by an exactly calculated scaling power which is stronger than in the constant medium case. The main technique used is the asymptotic analysis of a generalized diffusion-reaction equation in the space-time random medium, which (given the medium) prescribes the evolution of the Laplace transition functional of the Markov branching process.     

一类临界可交换随机环境中分枝过程的灭绝概率

本文将经典分枝过程临界情形的遍历基本引理推广到了随机环境情形,并在此基础上研究了一类临界可交换随机环境中分枝过程的灭绝概率的性质．     

A Critical Branching Process with Stationary-Limiting Distribution

Abstract

Seneta (Seneta, E. The stationary distribution of a branching process allowing immigration: A remark on the critical case. J. Royal Statistical Society, Series B 1968, 30, 176–179) shows that a critical branching process with pure immigration has a stationary-limiting distribution provided that its offspring variance is infinite. We obtain a stationary-limiting distribution keeping the variance finite but allowing an emigration–immigration component in each generation.     

Asymptotic Behavior of Critical Primitive Multi-Type Branching Processes with Immigration

Under natural assumptions a Feller-type diffusion approximation is derived for critical multi-type branching processes with immigration when the offspring mean matrix is primitive (in other words, positively regular). Namely, it is proved that a sequence of appropriately scaled random step functions formed from a sequence of critical primitive multi-type branching processes with immigration converges weakly toward a squared Bessel process supported by a ray determined by the Perron vector of the offspring mean matrix.     

Persistence of critical multitype particle and measure branching processes

Summary We consider a class of systems of particles ofk types inR ^d undergoing spatial diffusion and critical multitype branching, where the diffusions, the particle lifetimes and the branching laws depend on the types. We prove persistence criteria for such systems and for their corresponding high density limits known as multitype Dawson-Watanabe processes. The main tool is a representation of the Palm distributions for a general class of inhomogeneous critical branching particle systems, constructed by means of a backward tree.Research partially supported by CONACyT (Mexico), CNRS (France) and BMfWuF (Austria).     

Estimation of the offspring mean in a controlled branching process with a random control function

Controlled branching processes (CBP) with a random control function provide a useful way to model generation sizes in population dynamics studies, where control on the growth of the population size is necessary at each generation. An important special case of this process is the well known branching process with immigration. Motivated by the work of Wei and Winnicki [C.Z. Wei, J. Winnicki, Estimation of the mean in the branching process with immigration, Ann. Statist. 18 (1990) 1757–1773], we develop a weighted conditional least squares estimator of the offspring mean of the CBP and derive the asymptotic limit distribution of the estimator when the process is subcritical, critical and supercritical. Moreover, we show the strong consistency of this estimator in all the cases. The results obtained here extend those of Wei and Winnicki [C.Z. Wei, J. Winnicki, Estimation of the mean in the branching process with immigration, Ann. Statist. 18 (1990) 1757–1773] for branching processes with immigration and provide a unified limit theory of estimation.     

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).     

Fractal properties of clusters generated by branching processes

An approach is developed to construction of random point distribution in 3-dimensional space based on the theory of branching processes. Correlation functions of all orders have been obtained in general form. The neutron and Lévy branching processes are numerically investigated. It is shown that fractal properties of the obtained distributions develop not only in the case of critical cascades but also in the case of subcritical, close to critical ones. In the last case, fractal properties appear in the limit region of distances. The difference between distributions generated by branching and nonbranching processes is discussed. Supported by the Russian State Committee on Higher Education (grant No. 95-0-3.1-23). Proceedings of the Seminar on Stability Problems for Stochastic Models, Hajdúszoboszló, Hungary, 1997, Part I.     

A critical measure-valued branching process with infinite mean

A critical spatially homogeneous measure-valued branching process in R^dis studied where the initial state has infinite asymptotic density. In low dimen-dimensions it explodes (locally), but in a critical dimension both effects are exhibited.     

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.     

Fluctuation limits of site-dependent branching systems in critical and large dimensions

In this paper, some limit processes of occupation time fluctuations of the branching particle systems with varied branching laws from site to site are obtained. The results show that the varied branching laws can not affect the limit processes and the scaling parameters in the case of large dimensions, but in the case of critical dimensions, under suitable assumptions, it changes the limit processes with simple and isotropic spatial structures to those with complicated and anisotropic spatial structures and gives log corrections in the scaling parameters.     

An alternative approach to super-Brownian motion with a locally infinite branching mass

Fleischmann and Mueller (Probab. Theory Related Fields 107 (1997) 325) constructed a super-Brownian motion in R¹ with a locally infinite branching rate function, and they showed that this super-Brownian motion has a strong killing property in the critical case. In this paper, we first construct, via a limiting procedure, a super-Brownian motion which is equivalent to the super-Brownian motion with a locally infinite branching. From this construction, one can easily see the connection between the superprocess and a killed Brownian motion. Next, by taking advantage of the new construction, we give a new proof of the strong killing property of the 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.     

Estimation for discretely observed continuous state branching processes with immigration

We study the problem of parameter estimation for the continuous state branching processes with immigration, observed at discrete time points. The weighted conditional least square estimators (WCLSEs) are used for the drift parameters. Under the proper moment conditions, asymptotic distributions of the WCLSEs are obtained in the supercritical, sub- or critical cases.     

On the convergence rate in one limit theorem for branching processes with immigration

We obtain the convergence rate for the distribution of the fluctuation of almost critical branching processes with immigration to the normal law.     

Critical Bellman-Harris branching processes with long-living particles

A critical indecomposable two-type Bellman-Harris branching process is considered in which the life-length of the first-type particles has finite variance while the tail of the life-length distribution of the second-type particles is regularly varying at infinity with parameter β ∈ (0, 1]. It is shown that, contrary to the critical indecomposable Bellman-Harris branching processes with finite variances of the life-lengths of particles of both types, the probability of observing first-type particles at a distant moment t is infinitesimally less than the survival probability of the whole process. In addition, a Yaglom-type limit theorem is proved for the distribution of the number of the first-type particles at moment t given that the population contains particles of the first type at this moment.     

Analysis of a Recurrence Related to Critical Nonhomogeneous Branching Processes

Abstract

Some classes of controlled branching processes (with nonhomo-geneous migration or with nonhomo-geneous state-dependent immigration) lead in the critical case to a recurrence for the extinction probabilities. Under some additional conditions it is known that this recurrence depends on some parameter β and converges for 0 < β < 1. Now we show that the recurrence does converge for all positive values of the parameter β, which leads to an extension of some limit theorems for the corresponding branching processes. We also give a generalization of the recurrence and an asymptotic analysis of its behavior.     

The exact hausdorff dimension of a branching set

Summary We obtain a critical function for which the Hausdorff measure of a branching set generated by a simple Galton-Watson process is positive and finite.     

Escape Probabilities for Branching Brownian Motion Among Soft Obstacles

We derive asymptotics for the quenched probability that a critical branching Brownian motion killed at a small rate ε in Poissonian obstacles exits from a large domain. Results are formulated in terms of the solution to a semilinear partial differential equation with singular boundary conditions. The proofs depend on a quenched homogenization theorem for branching Brownian motion among soft obstacles.     

上临界迁出分枝过程的收敛速率

本文证明上临界迁出分枝过程的规范化过程的收敛性,并讨论其收敛速率.