Averaged large deviations for random walk in a random environment

In his 2003 paper, Varadhan proves the averaged large deviation principle for the mean velocity of a particle taking a nearest-neighbor random walk in a uniformly elliptic i.i.d. environment on $\mathbb{Z}^d$ with $d\geq1$, and gives a variational formula for the corresponding rate function $I_a$. Under Sznitman's transience condition (T), we show that $I_a$ is strictly convex and analytic on a non-empty open set $\mathcal{A}$, and that the true velocity of the particle is an element (resp. in the boundary) of $\mathcal{A}$ when the walk is non-nestling (resp. nestling). We then identify the unique minimizer of Varadhan's variational formula at any velocity in $\mathcal{A}$.Comment: 14 pages. In this revised version, I state and prove all of the results under Sznitman's (T) condition instead of Kalikow's condition. Also, I rewrote many parts of Section 1, streamlined some of the proofs in Section 2, fixed some typos, and improved the wording here and there. Accepted for publication in Annales de l'Institut Henri Poincar

The stochastic encounter-mating model

We propose a new model of permanent monogamous pair formation in zoological populations with multiple types of females and males. According to this model, animals randomly encounter members of the opposite sex at their so-called firing times to form temporary pairs which then become permanent if mating happens. Given the distributions of the firing times and the mating preferences upon encounter, we analyze the contingency table of permanent pair types in three cases: (i) definite mating upon encounter; (ii) Poisson firing times; and (iii) Bernoulli firing times. In the first case, the contingency table has a multiple hypergeometric distribution which implies panmixia. The other two cases generalize the encounter-mating models of Gimelfarb (1988) who gives conditions that he conjectures to be sufficient for panmixia. We formulate adaptations of his conditions and prove that they not only characterize panmixia but also allow us to reduce the model to the first case by changing its underlying parameters. Finally, when there are only two types of females and males, we provide a full characterization of panmixia, homogamy and heterogamy.Comment: 27 pages. We shortened the abstract, added Section 1.1 (Overview), and updated reference

Differing averaged and quenched large deviations for random walks in random environments in dimensions two and three

We consider the quenched and the averaged (or annealed) large deviation rate functions $I_q$ and $I_a$ for space-time and (the usual) space-only RWRE on $\mathbb{Z}^d$. By Jensen's inequality, $I_a\leq I_q$. In the space-time case, when $d\geq3+1$, $I_q$ and $I_a$ are known to be equal on an open set containing the typical velocity $\xi_o$. When $d=1+1$, we prove that $I_q$ and $I_a$ are equal only at $\xi_o$. Similarly, when d=2+1, we show that $I_a<I_q$ on a punctured neighborhood of $\xi_o$. In the space-only case, we provide a class of non-nestling walks on $\mathbb{Z}^d$ with d=2 or 3, and prove that $I_q$ and $I_a$ are not identically equal on any open set containing $\xi_o$ whenever the walk is in that class. This is very different from the known results for non-nestling walks on $\mathbb{Z}^d$ with $d\geq4$.Comment: 21 pages. In this revised version, we corrected our computation of the variance of $D(B_1)$ for $d=2+1$ (page 11 of the old version, after (2.31)). We also added details explaining precisely how the space-only case is handled, by mapping the appropriate objects to the space-time setup (see pages 14--17 in the new version). Accepted for publication in Communications in Mathematical Physics

Large deviations for random walk in a space--time product environment

We consider random walk $(X_n)_{n\geq0}$ on $\mathbb{Z}^d$ in a space--time product environment $\omega\in\Omega$. We take the point of view of the particle and focus on the environment Markov chain $(T_{n,X_n}\omega)_{n\geq0}$ where $T$ denotes the shift on $\Omega$. Conditioned on the particle having asymptotic mean velocity equal to any given $\xi$, we show that the empirical process of the environment Markov chain converges to a stationary process $\mu_{\xi}^{\infty}$ under the averaged measure. When $d\geq3$ and $\xi$ is sufficiently close to the typical velocity, we prove that averaged and quenched large deviations are equivalent and when conditioned on the particle having asymptotic mean velocity $\xi$, the empirical process of the environment Markov chain converges to $\mu_{\xi}^{\infty}$ under the quenched measure as well. In this case, we show that $\mu_{\xi}^{\infty}$ is a stationary Markov process whose kernel is obtained from the original kernel by a Doob $h$-transform.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/08-AOP400 the Annals of Probability (http://www.imstat.org/aop/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org