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One- versus multi-component regular variation and extremes of Markov trees

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2020

Johan Segers*
Affiliation:
Université catholique de Louvain
*
*Postal address: Université catholique de Louvain, LIDAM/ISBA, Voie du Roman Pays 20, B-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium. Email: johan.segers@uclouvain.be
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Abstract

A Markov tree is a random vector indexed by the nodes of a tree whose distribution is determined by the distributions of pairs of neighbouring variables and a list of conditional independence relations. Upon an assumption on the tails of the Markov kernels associated to these pairs, the conditional distribution of the self-normalized random vector when the variable at the root of the tree tends to infinity converges weakly to a random vector of coupled random walks called a tail tree. If, in addition, the conditioning variable has a regularly varying tail, the Markov tree satisfies a form of one-component regular variation. Changing the location of the root, that is, changing the conditioning variable, yields a different tail tree. When the tails of the marginal distributions of the conditioning variables are balanced, these tail trees are connected by a formula that generalizes the time change formula for regularly varying stationary time series. The formula is most easily understood when the various one-component regular variation statements are tied up into a single multi-component statement. The theory of multi-component regular variation is worked out for general random vectors, not necessarily Markov trees, with an eye towards other models, graphical or otherwise.

Information

Type
Original Article
Copyright
© Applied Probability Trust 2020
Figure 0

Figure 1: A four-variate Markov tree $(X_1, \ldots, X_4)$ and the weak limits $M_{a,b}$ of $X_b/X_a$ given $X_a = t$ as $t \to \infty$ for edges (a, b) in the tree. These limits constitute the multiplicative increments of the tail tree $\Theta_u$ starting at a given root, for instance at node $u = 1$ in (1) or at node $u = 3$ in (2).

Figure 1

Figure 2: Illustration of the tail tree in (7). To each edge $e = (a, b)$ in the tree rooted at $u = 1$, a random variable $M_{a,b}$ is associated. These variables are independent. The limit variable $\Theta_{u,v}$ is the product of the variables $M_e$ along the edges e on the path from u to v. The joint distribution of $\Theta_{u} = (\Theta_{u,v})_{v \in V}$ is the tail tree with root u.

Figure 2

Figure 3: The tail tree with root at node $u = 2$ (left) versus the tail tree with root at node $\bar{u} = 5$ (right) of the same Markov tree X on the tree $\mathcal{T}$ depicted in the middle. The path ${[{u}\rightsquigarrow{\bar{u}]}}$ is replaced by the path ${[{\bar{u}}\rightsquigarrow{u}]}$, and the direction of any edge on the path between the two roots (here, just the edge (2, 5)) is reversed, while the other edges remain unaffected. For any edge $e = (a, b)$ that changes direction, the distribution of the increment $M_{a,b}$ changes to that of the increment $M_{b,a}$. If both a and b belong to U, the increment distributions mutually determine each other through (29).