The range of tree-indexed random walk

Abstract

We provide asymptotics for the range R(n) of a random walk on the d-dimensional lattice indexed by a random tree with n vertices. Using Kingman's subadditive ergodic theorem, we prove under general assumptions that R(n)/n converges to a constant, and we give conditions ensuring that the limiting constant is strictly positive. On the other hand, in dimension 4 and in the case of a symmetric random walk with exponential moments, we prove that R(n) grows like n/(log n). We apply our results to asymptotics for the range of branching random walk when the initial size of the population tends to infinity.