Biased random walks on a Galton-Watson tree with leaves


Abstract in English

We consider a biased random walk $X_n$ on a Galton-Watson tree with leaves in the sub-ballistic regime. We prove that there exists an explicit constant $gamma= gamma(beta) in (0,1)$, depending on the bias $beta$, such that $X_n$ is of order $n^{gamma}$. Denoting $Delta_n$ the hitting time of level $n$, we prove that $Delta_n/n^{1/gamma}$ is tight. Moreover we show that $Delta_n/n^{1/gamma}$ does not converge in law (at least for large values of $beta$). We prove that along the sequences $n_{lambda}(k)=lfloor lambda beta^{gamma k}rfloor$, $Delta_n/n^{1/gamma}$ converges to certain infinitely divisible laws. Key tools for the proof are the classical Harris decomposition for Galton-Watson trees, a new variant of regeneration times and the careful analysis of triangular arrays of i.i.d. heavy-tailed random variables.

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