Conditioning Galton-Watson trees on large maximal out-degree

Abstract: We propose a new way to condition random trees, that is, condition random trees to have large maximal out-degree. Under this new conditioning, we show that conditioned critical Galton-Watson trees converge locally to size-biased trees with a unique infinite spine. For the sub-critical case, we obtain local convergence to size-biased trees with a unique infinite node. We also study tail of the maximal out-degree of sub-critical Galton-Watson trees, which is essential for the proof of the local convergence.