Binomial branching process conditioned on extinction

ID: binomial-branching-process-conditioned-on-extinction

For offspring with and , let be the branching extinction probability. Conditioning on extinction changes the offspring law to with the displayed parameter. Indeed, the probability of children is multiplied by , so the new probability generating function is . Since and , this equals . Its mean is , because strict convexity of and its zeros at and one force a negative derivative at the smaller zero. The conditioned process therefore has an exponentially decaying total-progeny tail. Unconditionally that tail instead converges to the survival mass , with an exponentially small correction. When extinction has probability zero, conditioning on it does not define this law.

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