How linear reinforcement affects Donsker's Theorem for empirical processes

Abstract

A reinforcement algorithm introduced by H.A. Simon \cite{Simon} produces a sequence of uniform random variables with memory as follows. At each step, with a fixed probability $p\in(0,1)$, $\hat U_{n+1}$ is sampled uniformly from $\hat U_1, \ldots, \hat U_n$, and with complementary probability $1-p$, $\hat U_{n+1}$ is a new independent uniform variable. The Glivenko-Cantelli theorem remains valid for the reinforced empirical measure, but not the Donsker theorem. Specifically, we show that the sequence of empirical processes converges in law to a Brownian bridge only up to a constant factor when $p<1/2$, and that a further rescaling is needed when $p>1/2$ and the limit is then a bridge with exchangeable increments and discontinuous paths. This is related to earlier limit theorems for correlated Bernoulli processes, the so-called elephant random walk, and more generally step reinforced random walks.