This article extends the results of Fang & Zeitouni (2012a) on branching random walks (BRWs) with Gaussian increments in time inhomogeneous environments. We treat the case where the variance of the increments changes a finite number of times at different scales in [0,1] under a slight restriction. We find the asymptotics of the maximum up to an OP(1) error and show how the profile of the variance influences the leading order and the logarithmic correction term. A more general result was independently obtained by Mallein (2015b) when the law of the increments is not necessarily Gaussian. However, the proof we present here generalizes the approach of Fang & Zeitouni (2012a) instead of using the spinal decomposition of the BRW. As such, the proof is easier to understand and more robust in the presence of an approximate branching structure.
In this paper, we study a random field constructed from the two-dimensional Gaussian free field (GFF) by modifying the variance along the scales in the neighborhood of each point. The construction can be seen as a local martingale transform and is akin to the time-inhomogeneous branching random walk. In the case where the variance takes finitely many values, we compute the first order of the maximum and the log-number of high points. These quantities were obtained by Bolthausen, Deuschel and Giacomin (2001) and Daviaud (2006) when the variance is constant on all scales. The proof relies on a truncated second moment method proposed by Kistler (2015), which streamlines the proof of the previous results. We also discuss possible extensions of the construction to the continuous GFF. Voir la bibliographie du memoire pour les references du resume. See the thesis s bibliography for the references in the summary.