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This paper is interested in proving correlation inequalities of the FKG-type for a broad range of random processes. The two pivotal tools which yield these correlation inequalities are that many discrete-time Markov chains, even under a very general conditioning, satisfy the FKG inequality, and that such inequalities are preserved through weak convergences. In particular, we prove that L\'{e}vy processes, Bessel processes and several conditioned Brownian processes have positive correlations., Comment: 10 pages

In this paper we study the recurrence and transience of the $\mathbb{Z}^d$-valued branching random walk in random environment indexed by a critical Bienaym\'e-Galton-Watson tree, conditioned to survive. The environment is made either of random conductances or of random traps on each vertex. We show that when the offspring distribution is non degenerate with a finite third moment and the environment satisfies some suitable technical assumptions, then the process is recurrent up to dimension four, and transient otherwise. The proof is based on a truncated second moment method, which only requires to have good estimates on the quenched Green's function. Notably, this provides an alternate proof to the previous argument of Benjamini and Curien in the case of a deterministic, homogeneous environment., Comment: 22 pages, 0 figure

The $N$-particles branching Brownian motion ($N$-BBM) is a branching Markov process which describes the evolution of a population of particles undergoing reproduction and selection. It shares many properties with the $N$-particles branching random walk ($N$-BRW), which itself is strongly related to physical $p$-spin models, or to Derrida's Random Energy Model. The $N$-BRW can also be seen as the realization of an optimization algorithm over hierarchical data, which is often called beam search. More precisely, the maximal displacement of the $N$-BRW (or $N$-BBM) can be seen as the output of the beam search algorithm; and the population size $N$ is the ``width'' of the beam, and (almost) matches the computational complexity of the algorithm. In this paper, we investigate the maximal displacement at time $T$ of an $N$-BBM, where $N=N(T)$ is picked arbitrarily depending on $T$ and the diffusion of the process $\sigma(\cdot)$ is inhomogeneous in time. We prove the existence of a transition in the second order of the maximal displacement when $\log N(T)$ is of order $T^{1/3}$. When $\log N(T)\ll T^{1/3}$, the maximal displacement behaves according to the Brunet-Derrida correction which has already been studied for $N$ a large constant and for $\sigma$ constant. When $\log N(T)\gg T^{1/3}$, the output of the algorithm (i.e. the maximal displacement) is subject to two phenomena: on the one hand it begins to grow very slowly (logarithmically) in terms of the complexity $N$; and on the other hand its dependency in the time-inhomogeneity $\sigma(\cdot)$ becomes more intricate. The transition at $\log N(T)\approx T^{1/3}$ can be interpreted as an ``efficiency ceiling'' in the output of the beam search algorithm, which extends previous results from Addario-Berry and Maillard regarding an algorithm hardness threshold for optimization over the Continuous Random Energy Model., Comment: 72 pages, 3 figures

The Poland--Scheraga model, introduced in the 1970's, is a reference model to describe the denaturation transition of DNA. More recently, it has been generalized in order to allow for asymmetry in the strands lengths and in the formation of loops: the mathematical representation is based on a bivariate renewal process, that describes the pairs of bases that bond together. In this paper, we consider a disordered version of the model, in which the two strands interact via a potential $\beta V(\hat\omega_i,\bar\omega_j)+h$ when the $i$-th monomer of the first strand and the $j$-th monomer of the second strand meet. Here, $h\in\mathbb R$ is a homogeneous pinning parameter, $(\hat\omega_i)_{i\geq 1}$ and $(\bar\omega_j)_{j\geq 1}$ are two sequences of i.i.d.~random variables attached to each DNA strand, $V(\cdot,\cdot)$ is an interaction function and $\beta>0$ is the disorder intensity. Our main result finds some condition on the underlying bivariate renewal so that, if one takes $\beta,h\downarrow0$ at some appropriate (explicit) rate as the length of the strands go to infinity, the partition function of the model admits a non-trivial, i.e. disordered, scaling limit. This is known as an \textit{intermediate disorder} regime and is linked to the question of disorder relevance for the denaturation transition. Interestingly and surprisingly, the rate at which one has to take $\beta\downarrow0$ depends on the interaction function $V(\cdot,\cdot)$ and on the distribution of $(\hat\omega_i)_{i\geq 1}$, $(\bar\omega_j)_{j\geq 1}$. On the other hand, the intermediate disorder limit of the partition function, when it exists, is universal: it is expressed as a chaos expansion of iterated integrals against a Gaussian process~$\mathcal{M}$, which arises as the scaling limit of the field $(e^{\beta V(\hat\omega_i,\bar\omega_j)})_{i,j\geq 0}$ and exhibits strong correlations on lines and columns., Comment: 60 pages, 7 figures

In the present paper, we investigate the collapsed phase of the interacting partially-directed self-avoiding walk (IPDSAW) that was introduced in Zwanzig and Lauritzen (1968). We provide sharp asymptotics of the partition function inside the collapsed phase, proving rigorously a conjecture formulated in Guttmann (2015) and Owczarek et al. (1993). As a by-product of our result, we obtain that, inside the collapsed phase, a typical IPDSAW trajectory is made of a unique macroscopic bead, consisting of a concatenation of long vertical stretches of alternating signs, outside which only finitely many monomers are lying., Comment: 34 pages, 2 figures

The present paper is dedicated to the 2-dimensional Interacting Partially Directed Self Avoiding Walk constrained to remain in the upper-half plan and interacting with the horizontal axis. The model has been introduced in \cite{F90} to investigate the behavior of a homopolymer dipped in a poor solvent and adsorbed along a horizontal hard wall. It is known to undergo a collapse transition between an extended phase, inside which typical configurations of the polymer have a large horizontal extension (comparable to their total size), and a collapsed phase inside which the polymer looks like a globule. In the present paper, we establish rigorously that inside the collapsed phase, a surface transition occurs between an adsorbed-collapsed regime where the bottommost layer of the globule is pinned at the hard wall, and a desorbed-collapsed regime where the globule wanders away from the wall. To prove the existence of this surface transition and exhibit its associated critical curve, we display some sharp asymptotics of the partition function for a slightly simplified version of the model., Comment: 49 pages, 5 figures

The Poland-Scheraga model is a celebrated model for the denaturation transition of DNA, which has been widely used in the bio-physical literature to study, and investigated by mathematicians. In the original model, only opposite bases of the two strands can be paired together, but a generalized version of this model has recently been introduced, and allows for mismatches in the pairing of the two strands, and for different strand lengths. This generalized Poland-Scheraga (gPS) model has only been studied recently in the case of homogeneous interactions, then with disordered interactions perturbed by an i.i.d. field. The present paper considers a disordered version of the gPS model which is more appropriate to depict the inhomogeneous composition of the two strands (in particular interactions are perturbed in a strongly dependent manner): we study the question of the influence of disorder on the denaturation transition, and our main results provide criteria for disorder (ir)-relevance, both in terms of critical points and of order of the phase transition. Surprisingly, we find that criteria for disorder relevance depend on the law of the disorder field. We discuss this with regards to Harris' prediction for disordered systems., Comment: 44 pages, 3 figures