Branching Processes in Random Environments with Thresholds
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Motivated by applications to COVID dynamics, we describe a branching process in random environments model {Z_n} whose path behavior changes when crossing upper and lower thresholds. This introduces a cyclical path behavior involving periods of increase and decrease leading to supercritical and subcritical regimes. Even though the process is not Markov, we identify subsequences at random time points {(τ_j, ν_j)} – specifically the values of the process at crossing times, viz., {(Z_τ_j, Z_ν_j)} – along which the process retains the Markov structure. Under mild moment and regularity conditions, we establish that the subsequences possess a regenerative structure and prove that the limiting normal distribution of the growth rates of the process in supercritical and subcritical regimes decouple. For this reason, we establish limit theorems concerning the length of supercritical and subcritical regimes and the proportion of time the process spends in these regimes. As a byproduct of our analysis, we explicitly identify the limiting variances in terms of the functionals of the offspring distribution, threshold distribution, and environmental sequences.
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