A particular family of absolutely monotone functions and relations to branching processes (Q6111831): Difference between revisions

A function \(f\colon [0,1)\to\mathbb{R}\) js \textit{absolutely monotone} if \(f^{(n)}(z)\ge 0\) for all \(n\ge 0\) and \(z\in [0,1)\). Clearly, if \(f\) is absolutely monotone then all its derivatives are absolutely monotone, too. It is known that the following functions \(f\colon [0,1)\to \mathbb{R}\) are absolutely monotone:\par\(f(z)=-\ln(1-z)\);\par \(f(z)=\frac{1}{1-z}\);\par \(f(0)=0\) and \(f(z)=1+\frac{z}{\ln(1-z)}\) for \(z\in (0,1)\).\par In the paper under review, the author completes this list by showing that the map \[f(z)=\ln\left( 1-\frac{\ln(1-z)}{c}\right)\] is absolutely monotone if and only if \(c\ge 1\). Consequently, all derivatives of \(f\) are absolutely monotone if \(c\ge 1\). The motivation for studying such functions comes from theory of continuous-time branching processes.