Width and mode of the profile for some random trees of logarithmic height

Abstract

We propose a new, direct, correlation-free approach based on central moments of profiles to the asymptotics of width (size of the most abundant level) in some random trees of logarithmic height. The approach is simple but gives precise estimates for expected width, central moments of the width and almost sure convergence. It is widely applicable to random trees of logarithmic height, including recursive trees, binary search trees, quad trees, plane-oriented ordered trees and other varieties of increasing trees.Comment: Published at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/105051606000000187 in the Annals of Applied Probability (http://www.imstat.org/aap/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org