Survival probability of the branching random walk killed below a linear boundary

We give an alternative proof of a result by N. Gantert, Y. Hu and Z. Shi on the asymptotic behavior of the survival probability of the branching random walk killed below a linear boundary, in the special case of deterministic binary branching and bounded random walk steps. Connections with the Brunet-Derrida theory of stochastic fronts are discussed

Coupling times with ambiguities for particle systems and applications to context-dependent DNA substitution models

We define a notion of coupling time with ambiguities for interacting particle systems, and show how this can be used to prove ergodicity and to bound the convergence time to equilibrium and the decay of correlations at equilibrium. A motivation is to provide simple conditions which ensure that perturbed particle systems share some properties of the underlying unperturbed system. We apply these results to context-dependent substitution models recently introduced by molecular biologists as descriptions of DNA evolution processes. These models take into account the influence of the neighboring bases on the substitution probabilities at a site of the DNA sequence, as opposed to most usual substitution models which assume that sites evolve independently of each other.Comment: 33 page

Coupling from the past times with ambiguities and perturbations of interacting particle systems

We discuss coupling from the past techniques (CFTP) for perturbations of interacting particle systems on the d-dimensional integer lattice, with a finite set of states, within the framework of the graphical construction of the dynamics based on Poisson processes. We first develop general results for what we call CFTP times with ambiguities. These are analogous to classical coupling (from the past) times, except that the coupling property holds only provided that some ambiguities concerning the stochastic evolution of the system are resolved. If these ambiguities are rare enough on average, CFTP times with ambiguities can be used to build actual CFTP times, whose properties can be controlled in terms of those of the original CFTP time with ambiguities. We then prove a general perturbation result, which can be stated informally as follows. Start with an interacting particle system possessing a CFTP time whose definition involves the exploration of an exponentially integrable number of points in the graphical construction, and which satisfies the positive rates property. Then consider a perturbation obtained by adding new transitions to the original dynamics. Our result states that, provided that the perturbation is small enough (in the sense of small enough rates), the perturbed interacting particle system too possesses a CFTP time (with nice properties such as an exponentially decaying tail). The proof consists in defining a CFTP time with ambiguities for the perturbed dynamics, from the CFTP time for the unperturbed dynamics. Finally, we discuss examples of particle systems to which this result can be applied. Concrete examples include a class of neighbor-dependent nucleotide substitution model, and variations of the classical voter model, illustrating the ability of our approach to go beyond the case of weakly interacting particle systems.Comment: This paper is an extended and revised version of an earlier manuscript available as arXiv:0712.0072, where the results were limited to perturbations of RN+YpR nucleotide substitution model

Fluctuations of the front in a one-dimensional model for the spread of an infection

We study the following microscopic model of infection or epidemic reaction: red and blue particles perform independent nearest-neighbor continuous-time symmetric random walks on the integer lattice $\mathbb{Z}$ with jump rates $D_R$ for red particles and $D_B$ for blue particles, the interaction rule being that blue particles turn red upon contact with a red particle. The initial condition consists of i.i.d. Poisson particle numbers at each site, with particles at the left of the origin being red, while particles at the right of the origin are blue. We are interested in the dynamics of the front, defined as the rightmost position of a red particle. For the case $D_R=D_B$, Kesten and Sidoravicius established that the front moves ballistically, and more precisely that it satisfies a law of large numbers. Their proof is based on a multi-scale renormalization technique, combined with approximate sub-additivity arguments. In this paper, we build a renewal structure for the front propagation process, and as a corollary we obtain a central limit theorem for the front when $D_R=D_B$. Moreover, this result can be extended to the case where $D_R>D_B$, up to modifying the dynamics so that blue particles turn red upon contact with a site that has previously been occupied by a red particle. Our approach extends the renewal structure approach developed by Comets, Quastel and Ram\'{{\i}}rez for the so-called frog model, which corresponds to the $D_B=0$ case.Comment: Published at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/15-AOP1034 in the Annals of Probability (http://www.imstat.org/aop/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

Solvable models of neighbor-dependent nucleotide substitution processes

We prove that a wide class of models of Markov neighbor-dependent substitution processes on the integer line is solvable. This class contains some models of nucleotide substitutions recently introduced and studied empirically by molecular biologists. We show that the polynucleotide frequencies at equilibrium solve explicit finite-size linear systems. Finally, the dynamics of the process and the distribution at equilibrium exhibit some stringent, rather unexpected, independence properties. For example, nucleotide sites at distance at least three evolve independently, and the sites, if encoded as purines and pyrimidines, evolve independently.Comment: 47 pages, minor modification

An example of Brunet-Derrida behavior for a branching-selection particle system on Z\Z

We consider a branching-selection particle system on $\Z$ with $N \geq 1$ particles. During a branching step, each particle is replaced by two new particles, whose positions are shifted from that of the original particle by independently performing two random walk steps according to the distribution $p \delta_{1} + (1-p) \delta_{0}$, from the location of the original particle. During the selection step that follows, only the N rightmost particles are kept among the 2N particles obtained at the branching step, to form a new population of $N$ particles. After a large number of iterated branching-selection steps, the displacement of the whole population of $N$ particles is ballistic, with deterministic asymptotic speed $v_{N}(p)$. As $N$ goes to infinity, $v_{N}(p)$ converges to a finite limit $v_{\infty}(p)$. The main result is that, for every $0<p<1/2$, as $N$ goes to infinity, the order of magnitude of the difference $v_{\infty}(p)- v_{N}(p)$ is $\log(N)^{-2}$. This is called Brunet-Derrida behavior in reference to the 1997 paper by E. Brunet and B. Derrida "Shift in the velocity of a front due to a cutoff" (see the reference within the paper), where such a behavior is established for a similar branching-selection particle system, using both numerical simulations and heuristic arguments

Brunet-Derrida behavior of branching-selection particle systems on the line

We consider a class of branching-selection particle systems on $\R$ similar to the one considered by E. Brunet and B. Derrida in their 1997 paper "Shift in the velocity of a front due to a cutoff". Based on numerical simulations and heuristic arguments, Brunet and Derrida showed that, as the population size $N$ of the particle system goes to infinity, the asymptotic velocity of the system converges to a limiting value at the unexpectedly slow rate $(\log N)^{-2}$. In this paper, we give a rigorous mathematical proof of this fact, for the class of particle systems we consider. The proof makes use of ideas and results by R. Pemantle, and by N. Gantert, Y. Hu and Z. Shi, and relies on a comparison of the particle system with a family of $N$ independent branching random walks killed below a linear space-time barrier