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Asymptotics of Iterated Branching Processes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 July 2016

Didier Piau*
Affiliation:
Université Lyon 1
*
Current address: Institut Fourier UMR 5582, Université Joseph Fourier Grenoble 1, 100 rue des Maths, BP 74, 38402 Saint Martin d'Hères, France. Email address: didier.piau@ujf-grenoble.fr
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Abstract

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Gaweł and Kimmel (1996) introduced and studied iterated Galton–Watson processes, (Xn)n≥0, possibly with thinning, as models of the number of repeats of DNA triplets during some genetic disorders. Our main results are the following. If the process indeed involves some thinning then extinction, {Xn→0}, and explosion, {Xn→∞}, can have positive probability simultaneously. If the underlying (simple) Galton–Watson process is nondecreasing with mean m then, conditionally on explosion, the ratios (log Xn+1)/Xn converge to logm almost surely. This simplifies the arguments of Gaweł and Kimmel, and confirms and extends a conjecture of Pakes (2003).

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Applied Probability Trust 2009 

References

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