From $1$ to $6$: a finer analysis of perturbed branching Brownian motion

2020

The logarithmic correction for the order of the maximum for two-speed branching Brownian motion changes discontinuously when approaching slopes $\sigma_1^2=\sigma_2^2=1$ which corresponds to standard branching Brownian motion. In this article we study this transition more closely by choosing $\sigma_1^2=1\pm t^{-\alpha}$ and $\sigma_2^2=1\pm t^{-\alpha}$. We show that the logarithmic correction for the order of the maximum now smoothly interpolates between the correction in the iid case $\frac{1}{2\sqrt 2}\ln(t),\;\frac{3}{2\sqrt 2}\ln(t)$ and $\frac{6}{2\sqrt 2}\ln(t)$ when $0<\alpha<\frac{1}{2}$. This is due to the localisation of extremal particles at the time of speed change which depen…