A Conditional Limit Theorem for the Frontier of a Branching Brownian Motion

Abstract

We prove a weak limit theorem which relates the large time behavior of the maximum of a branching Brownian motion to the limiting value of a certain associated martingale. This exhibits the minimal velocity travelling wave for the KPP-Fisher equation as a translation mixture of extreme-value distributions. We also show that every particle in a branching Brownian motion has a descendant at the frontier at some time. A final section states several conjectures concerning a hypothesized stationary "standing wave of particles" process and the relationship of this process to branching Brownian motion.