Some limit results for controlled branching processes with random control function (Q876839)

Consider the controlled branching process \((Z_{n})_{n\geq 0}\) with \(Z_{0}= {N},\;Z_{n+1}=\sum_{j=1}^{\varphi _{n}\left( Z_{n}\right) }X_{nj},\) \(n\geq 0\), where the \(X_{nj}\) and \(\varphi _{n}\) have the usual meanings. Let \(\varepsilon (k) =E(\varphi_{0}(k))\), \(k\geq 0\), and \(m=E(X_{01}).\) The authors are concerned with the critical case \[ \liminf _{k\rightarrow \infty }mk^{-1}\varepsilon (k) \leq 1\leq \limsup_{k\rightarrow \infty } mk^{-1}\varepsilon (k) . \] They derive sufficient conditions for the existence of a positive probability of nonextinction. Results about the convergence in distribution to a finite positive nondegenerate limit of the sequence \( (n^{-1}Z_{n}^{1-\alpha })_{n\geq 1},\) \(0\leq \alpha <1\), are also given.