Dirichlet forms and associated heat kernels on the Cantor set induced by random walks on trees (Q1959674)

In certain cases, it is known that a transient random walk naturally induces a Hunt process, or equivalently a Dirichlet form, on the Martin boundary. The author is interested in the study of such Dirichlet forms in the case of a random walk on a tree, whose Martin boundary is known to coincide with the Cantor set. He obtains explicit expressions of the hitting distribution (i.e., the harmonic measure) \(\nu\) and the induced Dirichlet form, in terms of the effective resistances. In addition, the author shows that an intrinsic metric on the Cantor set may be associated with the random walk, and provides a simple condition which is equivalent to the volume doubling property of \(\nu\) with respect to that metric. Assuming the volume doubling property, the author then studies the asymptotic behavior of the heat kernel, the jump kernel, and moments of displacements associated with the Dirichlet form. Finally, he also establishes a connection with noncommutative Riemannian geometry.