Defective Galton-Watson processes

Abstract: The Galton-Watson process is a Markov chain modeling the population size of independently reproducing particles giving birth to

k

offspring with probability

p_{k}

,

k g e 0

. In this paper we consider {it defective} Galton-Watson processes having defective reproduction laws, so that

s u m_{k g e 0} p_{k} = 1 - e p s

for some

e p s i n (0, 1)

. In this setting, each particle may send the process to a graveyard state

D e l t a

with probability

e p s

. Such a Markov chain, having an enhanced state space

0, 1, l d o t s c u p D e l t a

, gets eventually absorbed either at

0

or at

D e l t a

. Assuming that the process has avoided absorption until the observation time

t

, we are interested in its trajectories as

t o i n f t y

and

e p s o 0

.

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