We prove an analogue of the classical ballot theorem that holds for any random walk in the range of attraction of the normal distribution. Our result is best possible: we exhibit examples demonstrating that if any of our hypotheses are removed, our conclusions may no longer hold.
We consider a non-homogeneous random walks system on $bbZ$ in which each active particle performs a nearest neighbor random walk and activates all inactive particles it encounters up to a total amount of $L$ jumps. We present necessary and sufficient conditions for the process to survive, which means that an infinite number of random walks become activated.
We obtain Central Limit Theorems in Functional form for a class of time-inhomogeneous interacting random walks on the simplex of probability measures over a finite set. Due to a reinforcement mechanism, the increments of the walks are correlated, forcing their convergence to the same, possibly random, limit. Random walks of this form have been introduced in the context of urn models and in stochastic approximation. We also propose an application to opinion dynamics in a random network evolving via preferential attachment. We study, in particular, random walks interacting through a mean-field rule and compare the rate they converge to their limit with the rate of synchronization, i.e. the rate at which their mutual distances converge to zero. Under certain conditions, synchronization is faster than convergence.
Open Quantum Random Walks, as developed in cite{APSS}, are a quantum generalization of Markov chains on finite graphs or on lattices. These random walks are typically quantum in their behavior, step by step, but they seem to show up a rather classical asymptotic behavior, as opposed to the quantum random walks usually considered in Quantum Information Theory (such as the well-known Hadamard random walk). Typically, in the case of Open Quantum Random Walks on lattices, their distribution seems to always converge to a Gaussian distribution or a mixture of Gaussian distributions. In the case of nearest neighbors homogeneous Open Quantum Random Walks on $ZZ^d$ we prove such a Central Limit Theorem, in the case where only one Gaussian distribution appears in the limit. Through the quantum trajectory point of view on quantum master equations, we transform the problem into studying a certain functional of a Markov chain on $ZZ^d$ times the Banach space of quantum states. The main difficulty is that we know nothing about the invariant measures of this Markov chain, even their existence. Surprisingly enough, we are able to produce a Central Limit Theorem with explicit drift and explicit covariance matrix. The interesting point which appears with our construction and result is that it applies actually to a wider setup: it provides a Central Limit Theorem for the sequence of recordings of the quantum trajectories associated to any completely positive map. This is what we show and develop as an application of our result. In a second step we are able to extend our Central Limit Theorem to the case of several asymptotic Gaussians, in the case where the operator coefficients of the quantum walk are block-diagonal in a common basis.
We study the growth of two competing infection types on graphs generated by the configuration model with a given degree sequence. Starting from two vertices chosen uniformly at random, the infection types spread via the edges in the graph in that an uninfected vertex becomes type 1 (2) infected at rate $lambda_1$ ($lambda_2$) times the number of nearest neighbors of type 1 (2). Assuming (essentially) that the degree of a randomly chosen vertex has finite second moment, we show that if $lambda_1=lambda_2$, then the fraction of vertices that are ultimately infected by type 1 converges to a continuous random variable $Vin(0,1)$, as the number of vertices tends to infinity. Both infection types hence occupy a positive (random) fraction of the vertices. If $lambda_1 eq lambda_2$, on the other hand, then the type with the larger intensity occupies all but a vanishing fraction of the vertices. Our results apply also to a uniformly chosen simple graph with the given degree sequence.
We consider branching random walks in $d$-dimensional integer lattice with time-space i.i.d. offspring distributions. This model is known to exhibit a phase transition: If $d ge 3$ and the environment is not too random, then, the total population grows as fast as its expectation with strictly positive probability. If,on the other hand, $d le 2$, or the environment is ``random enough, then the total population grows strictly slower than its expectation almost surely. We show the equivalence between the slow population growth and a natural localization property in terms of replica overlap. We also prove a certain stronger localization property, whenever the total population grows strictly slower than its expectation almost surely.