On the distribution of leaves in rooted subtrees of recursive trees (Q1175968)

A random recursive tree \(T_ n\) of order \(n\) is a tree, rooted at the vertex labelled 1, which evolves from the recursive tree \(T_{n-1}\) of order \(n-1\) by choosing a vertex of \(T_{n-1}\) at random and joining the vertex labelled \(n\) to it, all \(n-1\) vertices of \(T_{n-1}\) being equally likely. The authors study the structure of \(T_ n^{(k)}\), the subtree of \(T_ n\) rooted at the vertex labelled \(k\), under the assumption that \(k\) is fixed and \(n\to\infty\). Employing generalized Pólya urn models they determine exact and limiting distributions for the size, the number of leaves (vertices of degree 1) and the number of internal vertices of \(T_ n^{(k)}\).