2011, Döring, Leif, Roberts, Matthew I.

In this article we contribute to the moment analysis of branching processes in catalytic media. The many-to-few lemma based on the spine technique is used to derive a system of (discrete space) partial differential equations for the number of particles in a variation of constants formulation. The long-time behavior is then deduced from renewal theorems and induction.

2011, Köcher, Janine, König, Wolfgang

We consider a random N-step polymer under the influence of an attractive interaction with the origin and derive a limit law -- after suitable shifting and norming -- for the length of the longest excursion towards the Gumbel distribution. The embodied law of large numbers in particular implies that the longest excursion is of order log N long. The main tools are taken from extreme value theory and renewal theory.