Survival, extinction and approximation of discrete-time branching random walks (Q633122)

The paper deals with a generalization of the multitype Galton-Watson branching process defined on countable sets, and three problems are successively addressed. To find conditions for the local or the global survival of the process, to discuss the spatial approximation, and to study the approximation by using truncated branching random walks. Local survival is completely characterized by means of the first-moment matrix of the process, what is not true for the global survival which is better described by means of an infinite-dimensional generating function associated with the random walk. Some results are obtained by comparing the considered process with a suitable oriented percolation. The similarities and discrepancies between discrete-time branching random walks and continuous-time branching random walks are illustrated by some examples.