We consider the existence and pathwise uniqueness of the stochastic heat equation with a multiplicative colored noise term on R d for d ≥ 1. We focus on the case of non-Lipschitz noise coefficients and singular spatial noise correlations. In the course of the proof a new result on Hölder continuity of the solutions near zero is established.

We consider a single genetic locus which carries two alleles, labelled P and Q. This locus experiences selection and mutation. It is linked to a second neutral locus with recombination rate r. If r = 0, this reduces to the study of a single selected locus. Assuming a Moran model for the population dynamics, we pass to a diffusion approximation and, assuming that the allele frequencies at the selected locus have reached stationarity, establish the joint generating function for the genealogy of a sample from the population and the frequency of the P allele. In essence this is the joint generating function for a coalescent and the random background in which it evolves. We use this to characterize, for the diffusion approximation, the probability of identity in state at the neutral locus of a sample of two individuals (whose type at the selected locus is known) as solutions to a system of ordinary differential equations. The only subtlety is to find the boundary conditions for this system. Finally, numerical examples are presented that illustrate the accuracy and predictions of the diffusion approximation. In particular, a comparison is made between this approach and one in which the frequencies at the selected locus are estimated by their value in the absence of fluctuations and a classical structured coalescent model is used.

This paper studies variations of the usual voter model that favor types that are locally less common. Such models are dual to certain systems of branching annihilating random walks that are parity preserving. For both the voter models and their dual branching annihilating systems we determine all homogeneous invariant laws, and we study convergence to these laws started from other initial laws.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/07-AAP444 the Annals of Applied Probability (http://www.imstat.org/aap/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

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