Random Self-Similar Trees: A mathematical theory of Horton laws
Abstract
The Horton laws originated in hydrology with a 1945 paper by Robert E. Horton, and for a long time remained a purely empirical finding. Ubiquitous in hierarchical branching systems, the Horton laws have been rediscovered in many disciplines ranging from geomorphology to genetics to computer science. Attempts to build a mathematical foundation behind the Horton laws during the 1990s revealed their close connection to the operation of pruning -- erasing a tree from the leaves down to the root. This survey synthesizes recent results on invariances and self-similarities of tree measures under various forms of pruning. We argue that pruning is an indispensable instrument for describing branching structures and representing a variety of coalescent and annihilation dynamics. The Horton laws appear as a characteristic imprint of self-similarity, which settles some questions prompted by geophysical data.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1905.02629,
title = {Random Self-Similar Trees: A mathematical theory of Horton laws},
author = {Yevgeniy Kovchegov and Ilya Zaliapin},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1905.02629},
year = {2019}
}
Comments
208 pages, 50 figures