English

Asymptotic properties of expansive Galton-Watson trees

Probability 2017-12-14 v1

Abstract

We consider a super-critical Galton-Watson tree whose non-degenerate offspring distribution has finite mean. We consider the random trees τ\taun distributed as τ\tau conditioned on the n-th generation, Zn, to be of size an \in N. We identify the possible local limits of τ\taun as n goes to infinity according to the growth rate of an. In the low regime, the local limit τ\tau 0 is the Kesten tree, in the moderate regime the family of local limits, τ\tau θ\theta for θ\theta \in (0, +\infty), is distributed as τ\tau conditionally on {W = θ\theta}, where W is the (non-trivial) limit of the renormalization of Zn. In the high regime, we prove the local convergence towards τ\tau \infty in the Harris case (finite support of the offspring distribution) and we give a conjecture for the possible limit when the offspring distribution has some exponential moments. When the offspring distribution has a fat tail, the problem is open. The proof relies on the strong ratio theorem for Galton-Watson processes. Those latter results are new in the low regime and high regime, and they can be used to complete the description of the (space-time) Martin boundary of Galton-Watson processes. Eventually, we consider the continuity in distribution of the local limits (τ\tau θ\theta , θ\theta \in [0, \infty]).

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1712.04650,
  title  = {Asymptotic properties of expansive Galton-Watson trees},
  author = {Romain Abraham and Jean-François Delmas},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1712.04650},
  year   = {2017}
}