Large deviations for random walks on Galton–Watson trees: averaging and uncertainty

Abstract

In the study of large deviations for random walks in random environment, a key distinction has emerged between quenched asymptotics, conditional on the environment, and annealed asymptotics, obtained from averaging over environments. In this paper we consider a simple random walk {X n } on a Galton–Watson tree T, i.e., on the family tree arising from a supercritical branching process. Denote by |X n | the distance between the node X n and the root of T. Our main result is the almost sure equality of the large deviation rate function for |X n |/n under the “quenched measure” (conditional upon T), and the rate function for the same ratio under the “annealed measure” (averaging on T according to the Galton–Watson distribution). This equality hinges on a concentration of measure phenomenon for the momentum of the walk. (The momentum at level n, for a specific tree T, is the average, over random walk paths, of the forward drift at the hitting point of that level). This concentration, or certainty, is a consequence of the uncertainty in the location of the hitting point. We also obtain similar results when {X n } is a λ-biased walk on a Galton–Watson tree, even though in that case there is no known formula for the asymptotic speed. Our arguments rely at several points on a “ubiquity” lemma for Galton–Watson trees, due to Grimmett and Kesten (1984).