Population-dependent branching processes with a threshold (Q1802321): Difference between revisions

In macroscopic population models the development of the population size, expressed as a proportion of the maximum possible size (which can be thought of as the carrying capacity of the environment), is often given by a deterministic sequence resulting from the iteration of a suitable function from (0,1) to (0,1). Microscopic models view the development of the population size as a consequence of the totality of individual reproduction, leading to models based on sums of family sizes (which are usually taken to be independent and identically distributed). Here the distribution of these family sizes is allowed to depend both on the present population size and on a threshold value (which can be thought of as a maximum possible population size). When this dependence arises only through ratio of these quantities (so that it is the proportion of carrying capacity that is presently used that influences the family size), this microscopic model can be viewed as a random version of a macroscopic one. This paper starts the investigation of when the deterministic (macroscopic) model's properties, which have been extensively investigated, are reflected in the microscopic one.