Shape-Driven Nested Markov Tessellations

A new and rather broad class of stationary (i.e. stochastically translation invariant) random tessellations of the $d$-dimensional Euclidean space is introduced, which are called shape-driven nested Markov tessellations. Locally, these tessellations are constructed by means of a spatio-temporal random recursive split dynamics governed by a family of Markovian split kernel, generalizing thereby the -- by now classical -- construction of iteration stable random tessellations. By providing an explicit global construction of the tessellations, it is shown that under suitable assumptions on the split kernels (shape-driven), there exists a unique time-consistent whole-space tessellation-valued Markov process of stationary random tessellations compatible with the given split kernels. Beside the existence and uniqueness result, the typical cell and some aspects of the first-order geometry of these tessellations are in the focus of our discussion

Typical Geometry, Second-Order Properties and Central Limit Theory for Iteration Stable Tessellations

Since the seminal work of Mecke, Nagel and Weiss, the iteration stable (STIT) tessellations have attracted considerable interest in stochastic geometry as a natural and flexible yet analytically tractable model for hierarchical spatial cell-splitting and crack-formation processes. The purpose of this paper is to describe large scale asymptotic geometry of STIT tessellations in $\mathbb{R}^d$ and more generally that of non-stationary iteration infinitely divisible tessellations. We study several aspects of the typical first-order geometry of such tessellations resorting to martingale techniques as providing a direct link between the typical characteristics of STIT tessellations and those of suitable mixtures of Poisson hyperplane tessellations. Further, we also consider second-order properties of STIT and iteration infinitely divisible tessellations, such as the variance of the total surface area of cell boundaries inside a convex observation window. Our techniques, relying on martingale theory and tools from integral geometry, allow us to give explicit and asymptotic formulae. Based on these results, we establish a functional central limit theorem for the length/surface increment processes induced by STIT tessellations. We conclude a central limit theorem for total edge length/facet surface, with normal limit distribution in the planar case and non-normal ones in all higher dimensions.Comment: 51 page

Poisson approximation of the length spectrum of random surfaces

Multivariate Poisson approximation of the length spectrum of random surfaces is studied by means of the Chen-Stein method. This approach delivers simple and explicit error bounds in Poisson limit theorems. They are used to prove that Poisson approximation applies to curves of length up to order $o(\log\log g)$ with $g$ being the genus of the surface.Comment: 22 pages, 2 figures. To appear in Indiana Univ. Math.

A four moments theorem for Gamma limits on a Poisson chaos

This paper deals with sequences of random variables belonging to a fixed chaos of order $q$ generated by a Poisson random measure on a Polish space. The problem is investigated whether convergence of the third and fourth moment of such a suitably normalized sequence to the third and fourth moment of a centred Gamma law implies convergence in distribution of the involved random variables. A positive answer is obtained for $q=2$ and $q=4$. The proof of this four moments theorem is based on a number of new estimates for contraction norms. Applications concern homogeneous sums and $U$-statistics on the Poisson space

Geometry of iteration stable tessellations: Connection with Poisson hyperplanes

Since the seminal work by Nagel and Weiss, the iteration stable (STIT) tessellations have attracted considerable interest in stochastic geometry as a natural and flexible, yet analytically tractable model for hierarchical spatial cell-splitting and crack-formation processes. We provide in this paper a fundamental link between typical characteristics of STIT tessellations and those of suitable mixtures of Poisson hyperplane tessellations using martingale techniques and general theory of piecewise deterministic Markov processes (PDMPs). As applications, new mean values and new distributional results for the STIT model are obtained.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.3150/12-BEJ424 the Bernoulli (http://isi.cbs.nl/bernoulli/) by the International Statistical Institute/Bernoulli Society (http://isi.cbs.nl/BS/bshome.htm). arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1001.099

The scaling limit of Poisson-driven order statistics with applications in geometric probability

Let $\eta_t$ be a Poisson point process of intensity $t\geq 1$ on some state space \Y and $f$ be a non-negative symmetric function on \Y^k for some $k\geq 1$. Applying $f$ to all $k$-tuples of distinct points of $\eta_t$ generates a point process $\xi_t$ on the positive real-half axis. The scaling limit of $\xi_t$ as $t$ tends to infinity is shown to be a Poisson point process with explicitly known intensity measure. From this, a limit theorem for the the $m$-th smallest point of $\xi_t$ is concluded. This is strengthened by providing a rate of convergence. The technical background includes Wiener-It\^o chaos decompositions and the Malliavin calculus of variations on the Poisson space as well as the Chen-Stein method for Poisson approximation. The general result is accompanied by a number of examples from geometric probability and stochastic geometry, such as Poisson $k$-flats, Poisson random polytopes, random geometric graphs and random simplices. They are obtained by combining the general limit theorem with tools from convex and integral geometry