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We give a short proof of a recent result of Claesson, Dukes, Frankl\'in and Stef\'ansson, that connects tournament score sequences and the Erd\H{o}s-Ginzburg-Ziv numbers from additive number theory. We show that this connection is, in fact, an instance of the L\'evy-Khintchine formula from probability theory, and highlight how such formulas can be useful in enumerative combinatorics. Our proof combines renewal theory with the representation of score sequences as lattice paths, due to Erd\H{o}s and Moser in the 1960s. These probabilistic and geometric points of view lead to a simpler proof. A key idea in the original proof and ours is to consider cyclic shifts of score sequences. We observe, however, that this idea is already present in Kleitman's remarks added to one of Moser's final articles in 1968, and in subsequent works by Kleitman. In the same article, Moser conjectured that there are asymptotically $C4^n/n^{5/2}$ many score sequences of length $n$. Combining the arguments in the current work with those in a recent work by the third author, we demonstrate the utility of the L\'evy-Khintchine method, by giving a short proof of Moser's conjecture.

A sequence $d_1\le\cdots\le d_n$ is graphical if it is the degree sequence of a graph. Balister, the second author, Groenland, Johnston and Scott showed that there are asymptotically $C4^n/n^{3/4}$ such sequences. However, the constant $C$ involves a probability that is only approximated. Using random walks and limit theory for infinitely divisible probability distributions, we describe $C$ in terms of Walkup's formula for the number of rooted, unlabelled and cyclically distinct plane trees.

The Horton-Strahler number of a rooted tree $T$ is the height of the tallest complete binary tree that can be homeomorphically embedded in $T$. The number of full binary trees with $n$ internal vertices and Horton-Strahler number $s$ is known to be the same as the number of Dyck paths of length $2n$ whose height $h$ satisfies $\lfloor \log_2(1+h)\rfloor=s$. In this paper, we present a new bijective proof of the above result, that in fact strengthens and refines it as follows. We introduce a sequence of trees $(\tau_i,i \ge 0)$ which "interpolates" the complete binary trees, in the sense that $\tau_{2^h-1}$ is the complete binary tree of height $h$ for all $h \ge 0$, and $\tau_{i+1}$ strictly contains $\tau_i$ for all $i \ge 0$. Defining $\mathcal{S}(T)$ to be the largest $i$ for which $\tau_i$ can be homeomorphically embedded in $T$, we then show that the number of full binary trees $T$ with $n$ internal vertices and with $\mathcal{S}(T)=h$ is the same as the number of Dyck paths of length $2n$ with height $h$. (We call $\mathcal{S}(T)$ the refined Horton-Strahler number of $T$.) Our proof is bijective and relies on a recursive decomposition of binary trees (resp. Dyck paths) into subtrees with strictly smaller refined Horton-Strahler number (resp. subpaths with strictly smaller height). In a subsequent paper, we will show that the bijection has a continuum analogue, which transforms a Brownian continuum random tree into a Brownian excursion and under which (a continuous analogue of) the refined Horton-Strahler number of the tree becomes the height of the excursion., Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures

We study a random recursive tree model featuring complete redirection called the random friend tree and introduced by Saram\"aki and Kaski. Vertices are attached in a sequential manner one by one by selecting an existing target vertex and connecting to one of its neighbours (or friends), chosen uniformly at random. This model has interesting emergent properties, such as a highly skewed degree sequence. In contrast to the preferential attachment model, these emergent phenomena stem from a local rather than a global attachment mechanism. The structure of the resulting tree is also strikingly different from both the preferential attachment tree and the uniform random recursive tree: every edge is incident to a macro-hub of asymptotically linear degree, and with high probability all but at most $n^{9/10}$ vertices in a tree of size $n$ are leaves. We prove various results on the neighbourhood of fixed vertices and edges, and we study macroscopic properties such as the diameter and the degree distribution, providing insights into the overall structure of the tree. We also present a number of open questions on this model and related models., Comment: 36 pages, 4 figures

We study a class of random polymers, introduced by Sina\u{i}, which are related to persistence probabilities in integrated simple random walk bridges. We find the precise asymptotics of these probabilities, and describe their combinatorics, using limit theory for infinitely divisible distributions, and the number-theoretic subset counting formulas of von Sterneck from the early 1900s. Our results sharpen estimates by Aurzada, Dereich and Lifshits, and respond to a conjecture of Caravenna and Deuschel, which arose in their study of the pinning/wetting models, for random linear chains exhibiting entropic repulsion. Our key combinatorial result is an analogue of Sparre Andersen's classical formula., Comment: v3: fixed typo in (1.3)

We study the relationship between tournaments and random walks. This connection was first observed by Erd\H{o}s and Moser. Winston and Kleitman came close to showing that $S_n=\Theta(4^n/n^{5/2})$. Building on this, and works by Tak\'acs, these asymptotic bounds were confirmed by Kim and Pittel. In this work, we verify Moser's conjecture that $S_n\sim C4^n/n^{5/2}$, using limit theory for integrated random walk bridges. Moreover, we show that $C$ can be described in terms of random walks. Combining this with a recent proof and number-theoretic description of $C$ by the second author, we obtain an analogue of Louchard's formula, for the Laplace transform of the squared Brownian excursion/Airy area measure. Finally, we describe the scaling limit of random score sequences, in terms of the Kolmogorov excursions, studied recently by B\"{a}r, Duraj and Wachtel. Our results can also be interpreted as answering questions related to a class of random polymers, which began with influential work of Sina\u{i}. From this point of view, our methods yield the precise asymptotics of a persistence probability, related to the pinning/wetting models from statistical physics, that was estimated up to constants by Aurzada, Dereich and Lifshits, as conjectured by Caravenna and Deuschel., Comment: v3: added ref #25 + corrected typo in Prop 21

We establish lower tail bounds for the height, and upper tail bounds for the width, of critical size-conditioned Bienaym\'e trees. Our bounds are optimal at this level of generality. We also obtain precise asymptotics for offspring distributions within the domain of attraction of a Cauchy distribution, under a local regularity assumption. Finally, we pose some questions on the possible asymptotic behaviours of the height and width of critical size-conditioned Bienaym\'e trees., Comment: 30 pages

Given an integer $n$, let $G(n)$ be the number of integer sequences $n-1\ge d_1\ge d_2\ge\dotsb\ge d_n\ge 0$ that are the degree sequence of some graph. We show that $G(n)=(c+o(1))4^n/n^{3/4}$ for some constant $c>0$, improving both the previously best upper and lower bounds by a factor of $n^{1/4}$ (up to polylog-factors). Additionally, we answer a question of Royle, extend the values of $n$ for which the exact value of $G(n)$ is known from $n\le290$ to $n\le 1651$ and determine the asymptotic probability that the integral of a (lazy) simple symmetric random walk bridge remains non-negative., Comment: 46 pages, 2 figures

We obtain new non-asymptotic tail bounds for the height of uniformly random trees with a given degree sequence, simply generated trees and conditioned Bienaym\'e trees (the family trees of branching processes), in the process settling three conjectures of Janson (2012) and answering several other questions from the literature. Moreover, we define a partial ordering on degree sequences and show that it induces a stochastic ordering on the heights of uniformly random trees with given degree sequences. The latter result can also be used to show that sub-binary random trees are stochastically the tallest trees with a given number of vertices and leaves (and thus that random binary trees are the stochastically tallest random homeomorphically irreducible trees with a given number of vertices). Our proofs are based in part on the bijection between trees and sequences introduced by Foata and Fuchs (1970), which can be recast to provide a line-breaking construction of random trees with given vertex degrees as shown in Addario-Berry, Blanc-Renaudie, Donderwinkel, Maazoun and Martin (2023)., Comment: 43 pages, 6 figures

We present a very simple bijective proof of Cayley's formula due to Foata and Fuchs (1970). This bijection turns out to be very useful when seen through a probabilistic lens; we explain some of the ways in which it can be used to derive probabilistic identities, bounds, and growth procedures for random trees with given degrees, including random d-ary trees. We also introduce a partial order on the degree sequences of rooted trees, and conjecture that it induces a stochastic partial order on heights of random rooted trees with given degrees., Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures

We show joint convergence of the Lukasiewicz path and height process for slightly supercritical Galton-Watson forests. This shows that the height processes for supercritical continuous state branching processes as constructed by Lambert (2002) are the limit under rescaling of their discrete counterparts. Unlike for (sub-)critical Galton-Watson forests, the height process does not encode the entire metric structure of a supercritical Galton-Watson forest. We demonstrate that this result is nonetheless useful, by applying it to the configuration model with an i.i.d. power-law degree sequence in the critical window, of which we obtain the metric space scaling limit in the product Gromov-Hausdorff-Prokhorov topology, which is of independent interest., Comment: 43 pages, 2 figures

We consider the strongly connected components (SCCs) of a uniform directed graph on $n$ vertices with i.i.d. in- and out-degree pairs distributed as $(D^-,D^+)$, with $\mathbb E[D^+]=\mathbb E[D^-]=\mu$. We condition on equal total in- and out-degree. A phase transition for the emergence of a giant SCC is known to occur at the critical value $\mathbb E[D^-D^+] = \mu$. We study the model at this critical value and, additionally, require that $\mathbb E[(D^-)^i(D^+)^j]<\infty$ for all $i+j\leq 3$, and for $(i,j)=(1,3)$ and $(i,j)=(3,1)$. We show that, under these conditions, the SCCs ranked by decreasing number of edges with distances rescaled by $n^{-1/3}$ converge in distribution to a sequence of finite strongly connected directed multigraphs with edge lengths, and that these are either $3$-regular or loops. The limit objects lie in a $3$-parameter family, which contains the scaling limit of the SCCs in the directed Erd\H{o}s-R\'enyi model at criticality as found by Goldschmidt and Stephenson (2019). This is the first universality result for the scaling limit of a critical directed graph model and the first quantitative result on the directed configuration model at criticality. As a trivial consequence, the largest SCCs at criticality contain $\Theta(n^{1/3})$ vertices and edges in probability, and the diameter of the directed graph at criticality is $\Omega(n^{1/3})$ in probability. We use a metric on the space of weighted multigraphs in which two multigraphs are close if there are compatible isomorphisms between their vertex and edge sets which roughly preserve the edge lengths. We use the product topology on the sequence of multigraphs. Our method of proof involves a depth-first exploration of the directed graph, resulting in a spanning forest with additional identifications, of which we study the limit under rescaling., Comment: 86 pages, 9 figures