English

Scaling limit for the cover time of the $\lambda$-biased random walk on a binary tree with $\lambda<1$

Probability 2025-03-05 v2

Abstract

The λ\lambda-biased random walk on a binary tree of depth nn is the continuous-time Markov chain that has unit mean holding times and, when at a vertex other than the root or a leaf of the tree in question, has a probability of jumping to the parent vertex that is λ\lambda times the probability of jumping to a particular child. (From the root, it chooses one of the two children with equal probability.) For this process, when λ<1\lambda<1, we derive an nn\rightarrow \infty scaling limit for the cover time, that is, the time taken to visit every vertex. The distributional limit is described in terms of a jump process on a Cantor set that can be seen as the asymptotic boundary of the tree. This conclusion complements previous results obtained when λ1\lambda\geq 1.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2410.20776,
  title  = {Scaling limit for the cover time of the $\lambda$-biased random walk on a binary tree with $\lambda<1$},
  author = {David A. Croydon},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2410.20776},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

21 pages

R2 v1 2026-06-28T19:37:40.147Z