Passage times of fast inhomogeneous immigration processes

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Tung, Hwai-Ray, Lawley, Sean D
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Tung, Hwai-Ray
Lawley, Sean D
author_facet Tung, Hwai-Ray
Lawley, Sean D
contents In many biophysical systems, key events are triggered when the fastest of many random searchers find a target. Most mathematical models of such systems assume that all searchers are initially present in the search domain, which permits the use of classical extreme value theory. In this paper, we explore $k$th passage times of inhomogeneous immigration processes where searchers are added to the domain over time either through time inhomogeneous rates or a Yule (pure birth) process. We rigorously prove convergence in distribution and convergence of moments of the $k$th passage times for both processes as immigration rates grow. In particular, we relate immigration with time inhomogeneous rates to previous work where all searchers are initially present through a coupling argument and demonstrate how immigration through a Yule process can be viewed as a time inhomogeneous immigration process with a random time shift. For Yule immigration, we find that the extreme distributions depart from the classical family of Frechet, Gumbel, and Weibull, and we compare our results to classical theorems on branching Brownian motion. This work offers one of the few examples where extreme value distributions can be obtained exactly for random variables which are neither independent nor identically distributed.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2508_14202
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Passage times of fast inhomogeneous immigration processes
Tung, Hwai-Ray
Lawley, Sean D
Probability
Statistical Mechanics
60G70, 92B99, 60J60
In many biophysical systems, key events are triggered when the fastest of many random searchers find a target. Most mathematical models of such systems assume that all searchers are initially present in the search domain, which permits the use of classical extreme value theory. In this paper, we explore $k$th passage times of inhomogeneous immigration processes where searchers are added to the domain over time either through time inhomogeneous rates or a Yule (pure birth) process. We rigorously prove convergence in distribution and convergence of moments of the $k$th passage times for both processes as immigration rates grow. In particular, we relate immigration with time inhomogeneous rates to previous work where all searchers are initially present through a coupling argument and demonstrate how immigration through a Yule process can be viewed as a time inhomogeneous immigration process with a random time shift. For Yule immigration, we find that the extreme distributions depart from the classical family of Frechet, Gumbel, and Weibull, and we compare our results to classical theorems on branching Brownian motion. This work offers one of the few examples where extreme value distributions can be obtained exactly for random variables which are neither independent nor identically distributed.
title Passage times of fast inhomogeneous immigration processes
topic Probability
Statistical Mechanics
60G70, 92B99, 60J60
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.14202