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We introduce a set of tools which simplify and streamline the proofs of limit theorems concerning near-critical particles in branching random walks under optimal assumptions. We exemplify our method by giving another proof of the Seneta-Heyde norming for the critical additive martingale, initially due to A\"id\'ekon and Shi. The method involves in particular the replacement of certain second moment estimates by truncated first moment bounds, and the replacement of ballot-type theorems for random walks by estimates coming from an explicit expression for the potential kernel of random walks killed below the origin. Of independent interest might be a short, self-contained proof of this expression, as well as a criterion for convergence in probability of non-negative random variables in terms of conditional Laplace transforms., Comment: 23 pages, v3: presentation changes, accepted version for EJP

The potential kernel of a positive left additive functional (of a strong Markov process $X$) maps positive functions to strongly supermedian functions and satisfies a variant of the classical domination principle of potential theory. Such a kernel $V$ is called a regular strongly supermedian kernel in recent work of L. Beznea and N. Boboc. We establish the converse: Every regular strongly supermedian kernel $V$ is the potential kernel of a random measure homogeneous on $[0,\infty[$. Under additional finiteness conditions such random measures give rise to left additive functionals. We investigate such random measures, their potential kernels, and their associated characteristic measures. Given a left additive functional $A$ (not necessarily continuous), we give an explicit construction of a simple Markov process $Z$ whose resolvent has initial kernel equal to the potential kernel $U_{\!A}$. The theory we develop is the probabilistic counterpart of the work of Beznea and Boboc. Our main tool is the Kuznetsov process associated with $X$ and a given excessive measure $m$.