Weak convergence for the minimal position in a branching random walk: a simple proof (Q653802)

Consider the boundary case of a super-critical discrete-time branching random walk on the real line (see, e.g., [\textit{J. D. Biggins} and \textit{A. E. Kyprianou}, Electron.\ J.\ Probab.\ 10, Paper No. 17, 609--631, electronic only (2005; Zbl 1110.60081)]). Under sufficient integrability conditions it is known, that on the set of non-extinction, the minimal position after \(n\) steps divided by \(\log n\) tends to \(3/2\) in probability as \(n\) tends to infinity [\textit{Y. Hu} and \textit{Z. Shi}, Ann.\ Probab.\ 37, No. ~2, 742--789 (2009; Zbl 1169.60021); \textit{L. Addario-Berry} and \textit{B. Reed}, Ann.\ Probab.\ 37, No. ~3, 1044--1079 (2009; Zbl 1196.60142)]. The authors give a simple, self-contained proof of this fact, which is technically simpler than the original proofs: it is based exclusively on elementary properties of sums of i.i.d.\ real-valued random variables.