Harnack Inequality and Applications for Infinite-Dimensional GEM Processes

The dimension-free Harnack inequality and uniform heat kernel upper/lower bounds are derived for a class of infinite-dimensional GEM processes, which was introduced in Feng and Wang (J. Appl. Probab. 44 938–949 2007) to simulate the two-parameter GEM distributions. In particular, the associated Dirichlet form satisfies the super log-Sobolev inequality which strengthens the log-Sobolev inequality derived in Feng and Wang (J. Appl. Probab. 44 938–949 2007). To prove the main results, explicit Harnack inequality and super Poincare inequality are established for the one-dimensional Wright-Fisher diffusion processes. The main tool of the study is the coupling by change of measures.