Modern Stochastics: Theory and Applications

A class of Cannings models is studied, with population size N having a mixed multinomial offspring distribution with random success probabilities ${W_{1}},\dots ,{W_{N}}$ induced by independent and identically distributed positive random variables ${X_{1}},{X_{2}},\dots $ via ${W_{i}}:={X_{i}}/{S_{N}}$, $i\in \{1,\dots ,N\}$, where ${S_{N}}:={X_{1}}+\cdots +{X_{N}}$. The ancestral lineages are hence based on a sampling with replacement strategy from a random partition of the unit interval into N subintervals of lengths ${W_{1}},\dots ,{W_{N}}$. Convergence results for the genealogy of these Cannings models are provided under assumptions that the tail distribution of ${X_{1}}$ is regularly varying. In the limit several coalescent processes with multiple and simultaneous multiple collisions occur. The results extend those obtained by Huillet [J. Math. Biol. 68 (2014), 727–761] for the case when ${X_{1}}$ is Pareto distributed and complement those obtained by Schweinsberg [Stoch. Process. Appl. 106 (2003), 107–139] for models where sampling is performed without replacement from a supercritical branching process.

Initiated around the year 2007, the Malliavin–Stein approach to probabilistic approximations combines Stein’s method with infinite-dimensional integration by parts formulae based on the use of Malliavin-type operators. In the last decade, Malliavin–Stein techniques have allowed researchers to establish new quantitative limit theorems in a variety of domains of theoretical and applied stochastic analysis. The aim of this survey is to illustrate some of the latest developments of the Malliavin–Stein method, with specific emphasis on extensions and generalizations in the framework of Markov semigroups and of random point measures.