Tree lengths for general $\Lambda$-coalescents and the asymptotic site frequency spectrum around the Bolthausen-Sznitman coalescent

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the lengths of branches in $ ext{Lambda}$-coalescents without dust, deriving laws of large numbers and asymptotic site frequency spectra, especially for the Bolthausen-Sznitman coalescent, using new Markov chain techniques.

Contribution

It provides general laws of large numbers for tree lengths in $ ext{Lambda}$-coalescents and introduces a novel method for analyzing functionals of decreasing Markov chains.

Findings

Laws of large numbers for total and external branch lengths

Asymptotic site frequency spectrum for Bolthausen-Sznitman coalescent

New technique for Markov chain functionals

Abstract

We study tree lengths in $\Lambda$-coalescents without a dust component from a sample of $n$ individuals. For the total length of all branches and the total length of all external branches we present laws of large numbers in full generality. The other results treat regularly varying coalescents with exponent 1, which cover the Bolthausen-Sznitman coalescent. The theorems contain laws of large numbers for the total length of all internal branches and of internal branches of order $a$ (i.e. branches carrying $a$ individuals out of the sample). These results transform immediately to sampling formulas in the infinite sites model. In particular, we obtain the asymptotic site frequency spectrum of the Bolthausen-Sznitman coalescent. The proofs rely on a new technique to obtain laws of large numbers for certain functionals of decreasing Markov chains.