Koç University, Mathematics Seminar

Date & Time: Thursday, February 25, 16:00-17:00

Place: SCI 129

Speaker: Mehmet Öz (Özyeğin University)

Title: Survival of Branching Brownian Motion in a Random Trap Field

Abstract: We study a branching Brownian motion Z evolving in R^d, where a radially decaying field of Poissonian traps is present. Each trap is a ball with constant radius. Considering a general offspring distribution and conditioning Z on non-extinction, we find the asymptotic decay rate of the annealed probability that none of the particles of Z hits a trap. The method of proof is to use a skeleton decomposition for the Galton-Watson process underlying Z and to show that the particles of finite line of descent do not contribute to the survival asymptotics. On the way, a convergence result on the conditional speed of branching Brownian motion is proved.

This talk is based on joint work with Mine Caglar and Janos Englander.

Speaker's Brief Biography: Dr. Öz obtained his B.A. degree from Franklin and Marshall College in 2005 with majors in Mathematics and Physics. He obtained M.Sc. degrees in Physics and Mathematics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, in 2007 and 2008, respectively, and his Ph.D. degree in Mathematics from Koç University in 2015. His research interests lie in probability theory and stochastic processes.