Branching on a Sierpinski graph (Q1004392)

In a previous paper [Acta Math. Sin., Engl. Ser. 23, No. 6, 1095--1108 (2007; Zbl 1129.60098)], the authors studied the downward motion under the action of gravity of a single particle on a vertical Sierpinski gasket. In that paper, the particle cannot repeatedly visit the same point and this makes the model significantly different from those leading to diffusion. In the present paper, the downward motion on the Sierpinski gasket is combined with a branching process. The splitting on escape nodes of falling particles makes the event of reaching the base of the gasket possible with positive probability. The random number \(Y(k)\) of particles reaching level \(k\) (that is the \(k\)-th generation) is the main object of the authors' analysis. The transition probabilities, the means and variances of the \(Y(k), k\geq 1\), are obtained explicitly and an analysis of extinction probabilities is also made.