Asympotic behavior of the total length of external branches for Beta-coalescents

We consider a ${\Lambda}$-coalescent and we study the asymptotic behavior of the total length $L^{(n)}{ext}$ of the external branches of the associated $n$-coalescent. For Kingman coalescent, i.e. ${\Lambda}={\delta}_0$, the result is well known and is useful, together with the total length $L^{(n)}$, for Fu and Li's test of neutrality of mutations% under the infinite sites model asumption . For a large family of measures ${\Lambda}$, including Beta$(2-{\alpha},{\alpha})$ with $0<\alpha<1$, M{ö}hle has proved asymptotics of $L^{(n)}{ext}$. Here we consider the case when the measure ${\Lambda}$ is Beta$(2-{\alpha},{\alpha})$, with $1<\alpha<2$. We prove that $n^{{\alpha}-2}L^{(n)}{ext}$ converges in $L^2$ to $\alpha(\alpha-1)\Gamma(\alpha)$. As a consequence, we get that $L^{(n)}{ext}/L^{(n)}$ converges in probability to $2-\alpha$. To prove the asymptotics of $L^{(n)}_{ext}$, we use a recursive construction of the $n$-coalescent by adding individuals one by one. Asymptotics of the distribution of $d$ normalized external branch lengths and a related moment result are also given.

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Field Value
Source https://hal.science/hal-00674190
Author Dhersin, Jean-Stephane, Yuan, Linglong
Maintainer CCSD
Last Updated May 11, 2026, 01:15 (UTC)
Created May 11, 2026, 01:15 (UTC)
Identifier hal-00674190
Language en
Rights https://about.hal.science/hal-authorisation-v1/
contributor Laboratoire Analyse, Géométrie et Applications (LAGA) ; Université Paris 8 (UP8)-Université Paris 13 (UP13)-Institut Galilée-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
creator Dhersin, Jean-Stephane
date 2012-02-26T00:00:00
harvest_object_id 9e0c635e-7af6-4334-a7f1-361bbe0737ce
harvest_source_id 3374d638-d20b-4672-ba96-a23232d55657
harvest_source_title test moissonnage SELUNE
metadata_modified 2025-10-06T00:00:00
relation info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/arxiv/1202.5859
set_spec type:UNDEFINED