We present an approximation to the Brunet--Derrida model of supercritical branching Brownian motion on the real line with selection of the @math right-most particles, valid when the population size @math is large. It consists of introducing a random space-time barrier at which particles are instantaneously killed in such a way that the population size stays almost constant over time. We prove that the suitably recentered position of this barrier converges at the @math timescale to a L 'evy process, which we identify. This validates the physicists' predictions about the fluctuations in the Brunet--Derrida model.
 We consider the minimum of a super-critical branching random walk. Addario-Berry and Reed [Ann. Probab. 37 (2009) 1044–1079] proved the tightness of the minimum centered around its mean value. We show that a convergence in law holds, giving the analog of a well-known result of Bramson [Mem. Amer. Math. Soc. 44 (1983) iv+190] in the case of the branching Brownian motion.  Given a branching random walk, let @math be the minimum position of any member of the @math th generation. We calculate @math to within O(1) and prove exponential tail bounds for @math , under quite general conditions on the branching random walk. In particular, together with work by Bramson [Z. Wahrsch. Verw. Gebiete 45 (1978) 89―108], our results fully characterize the possible behavior of @math when the branching random walk has bounded branching and step size. We study the cover time @math by (continuous-time) random walk on the 2D box of side length @math with wired boundary or on the 2D torus, and show that in both cases with probability approaching 1 as @math increases, @math . This improves a result of Dembo, Peres, Rosen, and Zeitouni (2004) and makes progress towards a conjecture of Bramson and Zeitouni (2009). We establish a second-order almost sure limit theorem for the minimal position in a one-dimensional super-critical branching random walk, and also prove a martingale convergence theorem which answers a question of Big-gins and Kyprianou [Electron. J. Probab. 10 (2005) 609-631]. Our method applies, furthermore, to the study of directed polymers on a disordered tree. In particular, we give a rigorous proof of a phase transition phenomenon for the partition function (from the point of view of convergence in probability), already described by Derrida and Spohn [J. Statist. Phys. 51 (1988) 817-840]. Surprisingly, this phase transition phenomenon disappears in the sense of upper almost sure limits. Branching Brownian motion describes a system of particles that diffuse in space and split into offspring according to a certain random mechanism. By virtue of the groundbreaking work by M. Bramson on the convergence of solutions of the Fisher-KPP equation to traveling waves, the law of the rightmost particle in the limit of large times is rather well understood. In this work, we address the full statistics of the extremal particles (first-, second-, third-largest, etc.). In particular, we prove that in the large t-limit, such particles descend with overwhelming probability from ancestors having split either within a distance of order 1 from time 0, or within a distance of order 1 from time t. The approach relies on characterizing, up to a certain level of precision, the paths of the extremal particles. As a byproduct, a heuristic picture of branching Brownian motion “at the edge” emerges, which sheds light on the still unknown limiting extremal process. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. We consider the maximum of the discrete two dimensional Gaussian free field (GFF) in a box, and prove that its maximum, centered at its mean, is tight, settling a long-standing conjecture. The proof combines a recent observation of Bolthausen, Deuschel and Zeitouni with elements from (Bramson 1978) and comparison theorems for Gaussian fields. An essential part of the argument is the precise evaluation, up to an error of order 1, of the expected value of the maximum of the GFF in a box. Related Gaussian fields, such as the GFF on a two-dimensional torus, are also discussed.  We show that the problem of a directed polymer on a tree with disorder can be reduced to the study of nonlinear equations of reaction-diffusion type. These equations admit traveling wave solutions that move at all possible speeds above a certain minimal speed. The speed of the wavefront is the free energy of the polymer problem and the minimal speed corresponds to a phase transition to a glassy phase similar to the spin-glass phase. Several properties of the polymer problem can be extracted from the correspondence with the traveling wave: probability distribution of the free energy, overlaps, etc. We consider the maximum of the discrete two dimensional Gaussian free field in a box, and prove the existence of a (dense) deterministic subsequence along which the maximum, centered at its mean, is tight. The method of proof relies on an argument developed by Dekking and Host for branching random walks with bounded increments and on comparison results specific to Gaussian fields. Consider a critical branching random walk on the real line. In a recent paper, Aidekon (2011) developed a powerful method to obtain the convergence in law of its minimum after a log-factor translation. By an adaptation of this method, we show that the point process formed by the branching random walk seen from the minimum converges in law to a decorated Poisson point process. This result, confirming a conjecture of Brunet and Derrida (J Stat Phys 143:420–446, 2011), can be viewed as a discrete analog of the corresponding results for the branching Brownian motion, previously established by (2010, 2011) and (2011). We consider the lattice version of the free eld in two dimensions (also called harmonic crystal). The main aim of the paper is to discuss quantitatively the entropic repulsion of the random surface in the presence of a hard wall. The basic ingredient of the proof is the analysis of the maximum of the eld which requires a multiscale analysis reducing the problem essentially to a problem on a eld with a tree structure. 2000 MSC: 60K35, 60G15, 82B41 Abstract Recently Harris [Proc. Roy. Soc. Edinburgh Sect. A 129 (1999) 503], using probabilistic methods alone, has given new proofs for the existence, asymptotics and uniqueness of travelling wave solutions to the K-P-P equation. Following in this vein we outline alternative probabilistic proofs. Specifically the techniques are confined to the study of additive and multiplicative martingales and spinal path decompositions along the lines of [B. Chauvin, A. Rouault, Probab. Theory Related Fields 80 (1988) 299], [R. Lyons, in: K.B. Athreya, P. Jagers (eds.), Classical and Modern Branching Processes, Vol. 84, Springer-Verlag, New York, 1997, pp. 217–222] and [R. , Ann. Probab. 23 (1995) 1125]. We also make use of a new decomposition where the spine is a conditioned process. Some new results concerning martingale convergence are obtained as a by-product of the analysis. It has been conjectured since the work of Lalley and Sellke (Ann. Probab., 15, 1052–1061, 1987) that branching Brownian motion seen from its tip (e.g. from its rightmost particle) converges to an invariant point process. Very recently, it emerged that this can be proved in several different ways (see e.g. Brunet and Derrida, A branching random walk seen from the tip, 2010, Poissonian statistics in the extremal process of branching Brownian motion, 2010; , The extremal process of branching Brownian motion, 2011). The structure of this extremal point process turns out to be a Poisson point process with exponential intensity in which each atom has been decorated by an independent copy of an auxiliary point process. The main goal of the present work is to give a complete description of the limit object via an explicit construction of this decoration point process. Another proof and description has been obtained independently by (The extremal process of branching Brownian motion, 2011). 