showing 5 related works from this author
Weak convergence to the coalescent in neutral population models
1999
For a large class of neutral population models the asymptotics of the ancestral structure of a sample of n individuals (or genes) is studied, if the total population size becomes large. Under certain conditions and under a well-known time-scaling, which can be expressed in terms of the coalescence probabilities, weak convergence in D E ([0,∞)) to the coalescent holds. Further the convergence behaviour of the jump chain of the ancestral process is studied. The results are used to approximate probabilities which are of certain interest in applications, for example hitting probabilities.
Ancestral processes in population genetics-the coalescent.
2000
A special stochastic process, called the coalescent, is of fundamental interest in population genetics. For a large class of population models this process is the appropriate tool to analyse the ancestral structure of a sample of n individuals or genes, if the total number of individuals in the population is sufficiently large. A corresponding convergence theorem was first proved by Kingman in 1982 for the Wright-Fisher model and the Moran model. Generalizations to a large class of exchangeable population models and to models with overlying mutation processes followed shortly later. One speaks of the "robustness of the coalescent, as this process appears in many models as the total populati…
Forward and backward diffusion approximations for haploid exchangeable population models
2001
Abstract The class of haploid population models with non-overlapping generations and fixed population size N is considered such that the family sizes ν1,…,νN within a generation are exchangeable random variables. A criterion for weak convergence in the Skorohod sense is established for a properly time- and space-scaled process counting the number of descendants forward in time. The generator A of the limit process X is constructed using the joint moments of the offspring variables ν1,…,νN. In particular, the Wright–Fisher diffusion with generator Af(x)= 1 2 x(1−x)f″(x) appears in the limit as the population size N tends to infinity if and only if the condition lim N→∞ E((ν 1 −1) 3 )/(N Var …
The coalescent in population models with time-inhomogeneous environment
2002
AbstractThe coalescent theory, well developed for the class of exchangeable population models with time-homogeneous reproduction law, is extended to a class of population models with time-inhomogeneous environment, where the population size is allowed to vary deterministically with time and where the distribution of the family sizes is allowed to change from generation to generation. A new class of time-inhomogeneous coalescent limit processes with simultaneous multiple mergers arises. Its distribution can be characterized in terms of product integrals.
The Concept of Duality and Applications to Markov Processes Arising in Neutral Population Genetics Models
1999
One possible and widely used definition of the duality of Markov processes employs functions H relating one process to another in a certain way. For given processes X and Y the space U of all such functions H, called the duality space of X and Y, is studied in this paper. The algebraic structure of U is closely related to the eigenvalues and eigenvectors of the transition matrices of X and Y. Often as for example in physics (interacting particle systems) and in biology (population genetics models) dual processes arise naturally by looking forwards and backwards in time. In particular, time-reversible Markov processes are self-dual. In this paper, results on the duality space are presented f…