Interval partition evolutions with emigration related to the Aldous diffusion
Abstract
We construct a stationary Markov process corresponding to the evolution of
masses and distances of subtrees along the spine from the root to a branch
point in a conjectured stationary, continuum random tree-valued diffusion that
was proposed by David Aldous. As a corollary this Markov process induces a
recurrent extension, with Dirichlet stationary distribution, of a Wright-Fisher
diffusion for which zero is an exit boundary of the coordinate processes. This
extends previous work of Pal who argued a Wright-Fisher limit for the
three-mass process under the conjectured Aldous diffusion until the
disappearance of the branch point. In particular, the construction here yields
the first stationary, Markovian projection of the conjectured diffusion. Our
construction follows from that of a pair of interval partition-valued
diffusions that were previously introduced by the current authors as continuum
analogues of down-up chains on ordered Chinese restaurants with parameters
(1/2,1/2) and (1/2,0). These two diffusions are given by an underlying
Crump-Mode-Jagers branching process, respectively with or without immigration.
In particular, we adapt the previous construction to build a continuum analogue
of a down-up ordered Chinese restaurant process with the unusual parameters
(1/2,-1/2), for which the underlying branching process has emigration.