Encoding multitype Galton-Watson forests and a multitype Ray-Knight theorem

Abstract

We provide a simple forest model to encode the genealogical structure of a multitype Galton-Watson process with immigration. We provide two encodings of these forests by stochastic processes. We show, under appropriate conditions, the depth-first encodings of each particular type converge to a solution to a system of stochastic integral equations involving height processes perturbed by functionals of their local times. The forest picture allows us to extend the Ray-Knight theorem and show that local time of the solution to the system of equations form a multitype continuous state branching process with immigration. These assumptions underlying our weak convergence arguments are easily seen to be met in the Brownian setting, and more generally an $\alpha$-stable setting for any $\alpha \in (1,2]$.

23 pages, 2 figures