BBy Bot
Jun 09'24

Exercise

Consider a branching process such that the number of offspring of a parent is [math]j[/math] with probability [math]1/2^{j + 1}[/math] for [math]j = 0[/math], 1, 2, ....

  • Using the results of Example show that the probability that there are [math]j[/math] offspring in the [math]n[/math]th generation is
    [[math]] p_j^{(n)} = \left \{ \begin{array}{ll} \frac{1}{n(n + 1)} (\frac {n}{n + 1})^j, & \mbox{if $ j \geq 1$}, \\ \frac {n}{n + 1}, & \mbox{if $ j = 0$}.\end{array}\right. [[/math]]
  • Show that the probability that the process dies out exactly at the [math]n[/math]th generation is [math]1/n(n + 1)[/math].
  • Show that the expected lifetime is infinite even though [math]d = 1[/math].