Cutting down trees with a Markov chainsaw

Abstract

We provide simplified proofs for the asymptotic distribution of the number of cuts required to cut down a Galton-Watson tree with critical, finite-variance offspring distribution, conditioned to have total progeny $n$. Our proof is based on a coupling which yields a precise, nonasymptotic distributional result for the case of uniformly random rooted labeled trees (or, equivalently, Poisson Galton-Watson trees conditioned on their size). Our approach also provides a new, random reversible transformation between Brownian excursion and Brownian bridge.