Modern Stochastics: Theory and Applications

We introduce a branching process in a sparse random environment as an intermediate model between a Galton–Watson process and a branching process in a random environment. In the critical case we investigate the survival probability and prove Yaglom-type limit theorems, that is, limit theorems for the size of population conditioned on the survival event.

A new class of multidimensional locally perturbed random walks called random walks with sticky barriers is introduced and analyzed. The laws of large numbers and functional limit theorems are proved for hitting times of successive barriers.

We analyze almost sure asymptotic behavior of extreme values of a regenerative process. We show that under certain conditions a properly centered and normalized running maximum of a regenerative process satisfies a law of the iterated logarithm for the lim sup and a law of the triple logarithm for the lim inf. This complements a previously known result of Glasserman and Kou [Ann. Appl. Probab. 5(2) (1995), 424–445]. We apply our results to several queuing systems and a birth and death process.

Let $(X_{k},\xi _{k})_{k\in \mathbb{N}}$ be a sequence of independent copies of a pair $(X,\xi )$ where X is a random process with paths in the Skorokhod space $D[0,\infty )$ and ξ is a positive random variable. The random process with immigration $(Y(u))_{u\in \mathbb{R}}$ is defined as the a.s. finite sum $Y(u)=\sum _{k\ge 0}X_{k+1}(u-\xi _{1}-\cdots -\xi _{k})\mathbb{1}_{\{\xi _{1}+\cdots +\xi _{k}\le u\}}$. We obtain a functional limit theorem for the process $(Y(ut))_{u\ge 0}$, as $t\to \infty $, when the law of ξ belongs to the domain of attraction of an α-stable law with $\alpha \in (0,1)$, and the process X oscillates moderately around its mean $\mathbb{E}[X(t)]$. In this situation the process $(Y(ut))_{u\ge 0}$, when scaled appropriately, converges weakly in the Skorokhod space $D(0,\infty )$ to a fractionally integrated inverse stable subordinator.