Precise estimates of presence probabilities in the branching random walk (Q1208929)

Let \(Z_ n\) denote the point process describing the positions of the individuals in the \(n\)th generation in a branching random walk, where the positions of the children relative to their mother are described by a general point process \(Z\). It is well known from the work of \textit{J. D. Biggins} [Z. Wahrscheinlichkeitstheorie Verw. Geb. 48, 17-34 (1979; Zbl 0387.60092)]and the author [Ann. Inst. Henri Poincaré, Probab. Stat. 23, 37-61 (1987; Zbl 0611.60082) and ibid., 459-497 (1987; Zbl 0658.60117)] that an interval \(H^ -=(c_ 0',c_ 0)\) is a supercritical region in the sense that \(Z_ n(H^ -)\) grows to infinity with positive probability and that \(p_ n'=P(Z_ n((-\infty,c'))\neq 0)\) and \(p_ n=P(Z_ n((c,\infty))\neq 0)\) both converge to 0 when \(c'<c_ 0'\), resp. \(c>c_ 0\). More precisely, the result of the author (loc. cit.) states that \(\log p_ n\approx-nh(c)\) where \(h\) is the Cramér transform of \(\int e^{\vartheta x}EZ(dx)\). The present paper improves this by showing that \(p_ n\approx K\cdot EZ_ n((c,\infty))\); similar results for branching Brownian motion have been established by \textit{B. Chauvin} and the author [Probab. Theory Relat. Fields 80, No. 2, 299-314 (1988; Zbl 0653.60077)] and \textit{S. Lalley} and \textit{T. Sellke} [Ann. Probab. 16, No. 3, 1051-1062 (1988; Zbl 0658.60113) and ibid. 17, No. 1, 116-127 (1989; Zbl 0692.60064)]. The proofs use large deviations techniques and a representation of \(p_ n\) via a discrete version of the Feynman-Kac formula.