The Martin boundary for general isotropic random walks in a tree (Q805045)

Let \(T=T_{a+1}\) be a homogeneous tree of degree \(a+1\) for \(a\geq 2\). An isotropic random walk on T is a Markov chain \((X_ n)\) on T such that \(p(x,y)=A_ d=P(X_{n+1}=y| \quad X_ n=x)\) depends only on d(x,y), where d(x,y) is the number of edges in the unique non-self intersecting path from x to y in T. Assuming only that \(A_ d\) is positive for some odd d, the Martin boundary is characterized, and it is proven that nonnegative p-harmonic functions on T are the same as nearest neighbor harmonic functions. Examples are given where the Martin boundary for p is not the same as in the nearest neighbor case. A non-abelian renewal theory is developed such that Tauberian conditions on \(P(d(X_ 1,x)=d| \quad X_ 0=x)\) guarantee the equivalence of the Martin boundary.