Home On Subcritical Markov Branching Processes with a Specified Limiting Conditional Law
Article
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

On Subcritical Markov Branching Processes with a Specified Limiting Conditional Law

  • Assen Tchorbadjieff ORCID logo EMAIL logo , Penka Mayster and Anthony G. Pakes
Published/Copyright: March 26, 2024
Become an author with De Gruyter Brill

Abstract

The probability generating function (pgf) B ( s ) of the limiting conditional law (LCL) of a subcritical Markov branching process ( Z t : t 0 ) (MBP) has a certain integral representation and it satisfies B ( 0 ) = 0 and B ( 0 ) > 0 . The general problem posed here is the inverse one: If a given pgf B satisfies these two conditions, is it related in this way to some MBP? We obtain some necessary conditions for this to be possible and illustrate the issues with simple examples and counterexamples. The particular case of the Borel law is shown to be the LCL of a family of MBPs and that the probabilities P 1 ( Z t = j ) have simple explicit algebraic expressions. Exact conditions are found under which a shifted negative-binomial law can be a LCL. Finally, implications are explored for the offspring law arising from infinite divisibility of the correponding LCL.

MSC 2020: 60J80; 60K05; 11B83

Acknowledgements

We thank the referee for directing us to the interesting paper [13].

References

[1] S. Asmussen and H. Hering, Branching Processes, Progr. Probab. Stat. 3, Birkhäuser, Boston, 1983. 10.1007/978-1-4615-8155-0Search in Google Scholar

[2] K. B. Athreya and P. E. Ney, Branching Processes, Grundlehren Math. Wiss. 196, Springer, New Yorkg, 1972. 10.1007/978-3-642-65371-1Search in Google Scholar

[3] N. H. Bingham, C. M. Goldie and J. L. Teugels, Regular Variation, Encyclopedia Math. Appl. 27, Cambridge University, Cambridge, 1987. 10.1017/CBO9780511721434Search in Google Scholar

[4] P. C. Consul and F. Famoye, Lagrangian Probability Distributions, Birkhäuser, Boston, 2006. Search in Google Scholar

[5] R. M. Corless, G. H. Gonnet, D. E. G. Hare, D. J. Jeffrey and D. E. Knuth, On the Lambert W function, Adv. Comput. Math. 5 (1996), no. 4, 329–359. 10.1007/BF02124750Search in Google Scholar

[6] N. S. Goel and N. Richter-Dyn, Stochastic Models in Biology, Academic Press, New York, 1974. Search in Google Scholar

[7] T. E. Harris, The Theory of Branching Processes, Grundlehren Math. Wiss. 119, Springer, Berlin, 1963. 10.1007/978-3-642-51866-9Search in Google Scholar

[8] N. L. Johnson, A. W. Kemp and S. Kotz, Univariate Discrete Distributions, 3rd ed., Wiley Ser. Probab. Stat., Wiley-Interscience, Hoboken, 2005. 10.1002/0471715816Search in Google Scholar

[9] P. Mayster and A. Tchorbadjieff, Extended Sibuya distribution in subcritical Markov branching processes, C. R. Acad. Bulgare Sci. 76 (2023), no. 4, 517–524. 10.7546/CRABS.2023.04.02Search in Google Scholar

[10] F. Olver, D. Lozier, R. Boisvert and C. Clark, NIST Handbook of Mathematical Functions, Cambridge University, Cambridge, 2010. Search in Google Scholar

[11] A. G. Pakes, On the recognition and structure of probability generating functions, Classical and Modern Branching Processes (Minneapolis 1994), IMA Vol. Math. Appl. 84, Springer, New York (1997), 263–284. 10.1007/978-1-4612-1862-3_21Search in Google Scholar

[12] H. Rubin and D. Vere-Jones, Domains of attraction for the subcritical Galton–Watson branching process, J. Appl. Probab. 5 (1968), 216–219. 10.1017/S0021900200032411Search in Google Scholar

[13] S. Sagitov and A. Lindo, A special family of Galton–Watson processes with explosions, Branching Processes and Their Applications, Lect. Notes Stat. 219, Springer, Cham (2016), 237–254. 10.1007/978-3-319-31641-3_14Search in Google Scholar

[14] F. W. Steutel and K. van Harn, Infinite Divisibility of Probability Distributions on the Real Line, Monogr. Textb. Pure. Appl. Math. 259, Marcel Dekker, New York, 2004. 10.1201/9780203014127Search in Google Scholar

[15] A. Tchorbadjieff and P. Mayster, Geometric branching reproduction Markov processes, Mod. Stoch. Theory Appl. 7 (2020), no. 4, 357–378. 10.15559/20-VMSTA163Search in Google Scholar

Received: 2023-12-01
Revised: 2024-02-27
Accepted: 2024-03-01
Published Online: 2024-03-26
Published in Print: 2024-06-01

© 2024 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Downloaded on 23.11.2025 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/eqc-2023-0043/html?lang=en
Scroll to top button