On trees invariant under edge contraction

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Abstract: We study random trees which are invariant in law under the operation of contracting each edge independently with probability pin(0,1). We show that all such trees can be constructed through Poissonian sampling from a certain class of random measured R-trees satisfying a natural scale invariance property. This has connections to exchangeable partially ordered sets, real-valued self-similar increasing processes and quasi-stationary distributions of Galton--Watson processes.


Consider a random rooted, locally finite tree \(T=(V,E,\rho)\) with finitely many ends, and denote by \(\text{Spine}(T)\) the union of ends of \(T\) or \(\{\rho\}\), if \(T\) has no end. Take \(p,q\in(0,1)\), set \(V_0= V\setminus\mathrm{Spine}(T)\), \(V_1= \mathrm{Spine}(T)\setminus\rho\), and define the contracted tree \(C_{p,q}(T,V')\) as the tree with root \(\rho\) and vertex set \(V'\subset V\) containing \(\rho\), every vertex in \(V_0\) independently with probability \(p\), and every vertex in \(V_1\) independently with probability \(q\). The partial order on \(V'\) is the restriction of the partial order on \(V\). The tree \(T\) is called \((p,q)\)-self-similar, if it equals \(C_{p,q}(T,V')\) in distribution. Next, consider the space of complete, locally compact, rooted, measured \(\mathbb{R}\)-trees \({\mathcal T}\)-\(({\mathcal V},d,\rho,\mu)\), with \(\mu\) bounded, modulo equivalence with respect to root- and measure-preserving isometries. Endow this space with the Gromov-Hausdorff-Prokhorov topology and the Borel \(\sigma\)-field induced by it. Restrict the space to trees with finitely many open ends and \(\mu\) dominating the length measure \(\ell_{{\mathcal T}}\). Define the spine of \({\mathcal T}\) as the subset of vertices which lie on an end, and the rescaled tree \({\mathcal S}_{p,q}({\mathcal T})\) as obtained from \({\mathcal T}\) by shrinking distances on the spine by the factor \(p\) and off the spine by a factor \(q\), and scaling the component \(\mu\)-\(\ell_{{\mathcal T}}\) of \(\mu\) by the factor \(p\). The tree \({\mathcal T}\) is called \((p,q)\)-self-similar, if it is equal in distribution to \({\mathcal S}_{p,q}({\mathcal T})\). A one-to-one correspondence of \((p,q)\)-self-similar discrete trees and \((p,q)\)-self-similar \(\mathbb{R}\)-trees is obtained via the following discretization of the latter: let \(V^{(0)}\) be the set of atoms of a Poisson process on \({\mathcal V}\) with intensity measure \(\ell_{{\mathcal T}}\) and \(V^{(1)}\) the multiset of atoms of a Poisson process on \({\mathcal V}\) with intensity measure \(\mu\)-\(\ell_{{\mathcal T}}\). Define \(T\) as the rooted tree with vertex set \(V^{(0)}\cup V^{(1)}\) and \(v\) ancestor of \(w\) in \(T\) if and only if it is an ancestor of \(w\) in \({\mathcal T}\) and \(v\in V^{(0)}\). As an example, the class of trees which are invariant with respect to translation along the spine is discussed. In the case of self-similar trees consisting of a single spine to which i.i.d. subtrees are attached, the construction of the corresponding \(\mathbb{R}\)-trees is related to the quasi-stationary distributions of linear-fractional subcritical Bienaymé-Galton-Watson processes.



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