Yaglom-type limit theorems for branching Brownian motion with absorption

Abstract

We consider one-dimensional branching Brownian motion in which particles are absorbed at the origin. We assume that when a particle branches, the offspring distribution is supercritical, but the particles are given a critical drift towards the origin so that the process eventually goes extinct with probability one. We establish precise asymptotics for the probability that the process survives for a large time t, building on previous results by Kesten (1978) and Berestycki, Berestycki, and Schweinsberg (2014). We also prove a Yaglom-type limit theorem for the behavior of the process conditioned to survive for an unusually long time, providing an essentially complete answer to a question first addressed by Kesten (1978). An important tool in the proofs of these results is the convergence of a certain observable to a continuous state branching process. Our proofs incorporate new ideas which might be of use in other branching models.