A functional central limit theorem for branching random walks, almost sure weak convergence and applications to random trees

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Publication:511484

DOI10.1214/16-AAP1188zbMATH Open1367.60028arXiv1410.0469OpenAlexW2964043144MaRDI QIDQ511484FDOQ511484

Rudolf Grรผbel, Zakhar Kabluchko

Publication date: 21 February 2017

Published in: The Annals of Applied Probability (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: Let be the limit of the Biggins martingale associated to a supercritical branching random walk with mean number of offspring m. We prove a functional central limit theorem stating that as noinfty the process D_n(u):= m^{frac 12 n} left(W_{infty}left(frac{u}{sqrt n} ight) - W_{n}left(frac{u}{sqrt n} ight) ight) converges weakly, on a suitable space of analytic functions, to a Gaussian random analytic function with random variance. Using this result we prove central limit theorems for the total path length of random trees. In the setting of binary search trees, we recover a recent result of R. Neininger [Refined Quicksort Asymptotics, Rand. Struct. and Alg., to appear], but we also prove a similar theorem for uniform random recursive trees. Moreover, we replace weak convergence in Neininger's theorem by the almost sure weak (a.s.w.) convergence of probability transition kernels. In the case of binary search trees, our result states that Lleft{sqrt{frac{n}{2log n}} left(EPL_{infty} - frac{EPL_n-2nlog n}{n} ight)Bigg | G_{n} ight} o {omegamapsto N_{0,1}}, quad ext{a.s.w.}, where EPLn is the external path length of a binary search tree Xn with n vertices, EPLinfty is the limit of the R'egnier martingale, and L(,cdot,|Gn) denotes the conditional distribution w.r.t. the sigma-algebra Gn generated by X1,ldots,Xn. A.s.w. convergence is stronger than weak and even stable convergence. We prove several basic properties of the a.s.w. convergence and study a number of further examples in which the a.s.w. convergence appears naturally. These include the classical central limit theorem for Galton-Watson processes and the P'olya urn.


Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1410.0469






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