We study the asymptotics of the $k$-regular self-similar fragmentation process. For $alpha > 0$ and an integer $k geq 2$, this is the Markov process $(I_t)_{t geq 0}$ in which each $I_t$ is a union of open subsets of $[0,1)$, and independently each s
ubinterval of $I_t$ of size $u$ breaks into $k$ equally sized pieces at rate $u^alpha$. Let $k^{ - m_t}$ and $k^{ - M_t}$ be the respective sizes of the largest and smallest fragments in $I_t$. By relating $(I_t)_{t geq 0}$ to a branching random walk, we find that there exist explicit deterministic functions $g(t)$ and $h(t)$ such that $|m_t - g(t)| leq 1$ and $|M_t - h(t)| leq 1$ for all sufficiently large $t$. Furthermore, for each $n$, we study the final time at which fragments of size $k^{-n}$ exist. In particular, by relating our branching random walk to a certain point process, we show that, after suitable rescaling, the laws of these times converge to a Gumbel distribution as $n to infty$.
We study the simple random walk on trees and give estimates on the mixing and relaxation time. Relying on a recent characterization by Basu, Hermon and Peres, we give geometric criteria, which are easy to verify and allow to determine whether the cut
off phenomenon occurs. We thoroughly discuss families of trees with cutoff, and show how our criteria can be used to prove the absence of cutoff for several classes of trees, including spherically symmetric trees, Galton-Watson trees of a fixed height, and sequences of random trees converging to the Brownian CRT.
Let $(a_k)_{kinmathbb N}$ be a sequence of integers satisfying the Hadamard gap condition $a_{k+1}/a_k>q>1$ for all $kinmathbb N$, and let $$ S_n(omega) = sum_{k=1}^ncos(2pi a_k omega),qquad ninmathbb N,;omegain [0,1]. $$ The lacunary trigonometric s
um $S_n$ is known to exhibit several properties typical for sums of independent random variables. In this paper we initiate the investigation of large deviation principles (LDPs) for $S_n$. Under the large gap condition $a_{k+1}/a_ktoinfty$, we prove that $(S_n/n)_{ninmathbb N}$ satisfies an LDP with speed $n$ and the same rate function $tilde{I}$ as for sums of independent random variables with the arcsine distribution, but show that the LDP may fail to hold when we only assume the Hadamard gap condition. However, we prove that in the special case $a_k=q^k$ for some $qin {2,3,ldots}$, $(S_n/n)_{ninmathbb N}$ satisfies an LDP with speed $n$ and a rate function $I_q$ different from $tilde{I}$. We also show that $I_q$ converges pointwise to $tilde I$ as $qtoinfty$ and construct a random perturbation $(a_k)_{kinmathbb N}$ of the sequence $(2^k)_{kinmathbb N}$ for which $a_{k+1}/a_kto 2$ as $ktoinfty$, but for which $(S_n/n)_{ninmathbb N}$ satisfies an LDP with the rate function $tilde{I}$ as in the independent case and not, as one might na{i}vely expect, with rate function $I_2$. We relate this fact to the number of solutions of certain Diophantine equations. Our results show that LDPs for lacunary trigonometric sums are sensitive to the arithmetic properties of $(a_k)_{kinmathbb N}$. This is particularly noteworthy since no such arithmetic effects are visible in the central limit theorem by Salem and Zygmund or in the law of the iterated logarithm by Erdos and Gal. Our proofs use a combination of tools from probability theory, harmonic analysis, and dynamical systems.
We study the totally asymmetric simple exclusion process (TASEP) on trees where particles are generated at the root. Particles can only jump away from the root, and they jump from $x$ to $y$ at rate $r_{x,y}$ provided $y$ is empty. Starting from the
all empty initial condition, we show that the distribution of the configuration at time $t$ converges to an equilibrium. We study the current and give conditions on the transition rates such that the current is of linear order or such that there is zero current, i.e. the particles block each other. A key step, which is of independent interest, is to bound the first generation at which the particle trajectories of the first $n$ particles decouple.
We prove large deviation results for the position of the rightmost particle, denoted by $M_n$, in a one-dimensional branching random walk in a case when Cramers condition is not satisfied. More precisely we consider step size distributions with stret
ched exponential upper and lower tails, i.e.~both tails decay as $e^{-|t|^r}$ for some $rin( 0,1)$. It is known that in this case, $M_n$ grows as $n^{1/r}$ and in particular faster than linearly in $n$. Our main result is a large deviation principle for the laws of $n^{-1/r}M_n$ . In the proof we use a comparison with the maximum of (a random number of) independent random walks, denoted by $tilde M_n$, and we show a large deviation principle for the laws of $n^{-1/r}tilde M_n$ as well.
We study the one-dimensional branching random walk in the case when the step size distribution has a stretched exponential tail, and, in particular, no finite exponential moments. The tail of the step size $X$ decays as $mathbb{P}[X geq t] sim a exp(
-lambda t^r)$ for some constants $a, lambda > 0$ where $r in (0,1)$. We give a detailed description of the asymptotic behaviour of the position of the rightmost particle, proving almost-sure limit theorems, convergence in law and some integral tests. The limit theorems reveal interesting differences betweens the two regimes $ r in (0, 2/3)$ and $ r in (2/3, 1)$, with yet different limits in the boundary case $r = 2/3$.
We study mixing times of the symmetric and asymmetric simple exclusion process on the segment where particles are allowed to enter and exit at the endpoints. We consider different regimes depending on the entering and exiting rates as well as on the
rates in the bulk, and show that the process exhibits pre-cutoff and in some cases cutoff. Our main contribution is to study mixing times for the asymmetric simple exclusion process with open boundaries. We show that the order of the mixing time can be linear or exponential in the size of the segment depending on the choice of the boundary parameters, proving a strikingly different (and richer) behavior for the simple exclusion process with open boundaries than for the process on the closed segment. Our arguments combine coupling, second class particle and censoring techniques with current estimates. A novel idea is the use of multi-species particle arguments, where the particles only obey a partial ordering.
We give a short overview on our work on ancestral lineages in spatial population models with local regulation. We explain how an ancestral lineage can be interpreted as a random walk in a dynamic random environment. Defining regeneration times allows
to prove central limit theorems for such walks. We also consider several ancestral lineages in the same population and show for one prototypical example that in one dimension the corresponding system of coalescing walks converges to the Brownian web.
We investigate a model for opinion dynamics, where individuals (modeled by vertices of a graph) hold certain abstract opinions. As time progresses, neighboring individuals interact with each other, and this interaction results in a realignment of opi
nions closer towards each other. This mechanism triggers formation of consensus among the individuals. Our main focus is on strong consensus (i.e. global agreement of all individuals) versus weak consensus (i.e. local agreement among neighbors). By extending a known model to a more general opinion space, which lacks a central opinion acting as a contraction point, we provide an example of an opinion formation process on the one-dimensional lattice with weak consensus but no strong consensus.
We define interacting particle systems on configurations of the integer lattice (with values in some finite alphabet) by the superimposition of two dynamics: a substitution process with finite range rates, and a circular permutation mechanism(called
cut-and-paste) with possibly unbounded range. The model is motivated by the dynamics of DNA sequences: we consider an ergodic model for substitutions, the RN+YpR model ([BGP08]), with three particular cases, the models JC+cpg,T92+cpg, and RNc+YpR. We investigate whether they remain ergodic with the additional cut-and-paste mechanism, which models insertions and deletions of nucleotides. Using either duality or attractiveness techniques, we provide various sets of sufficient conditions, concerning only the substitution rates, for ergodicity of the superimposed process. They imply ergodicity of the models JC+cpg, T92+cpg as well as the attractive RNc+YpR, all with an additional cut-and-paste mechanism.
