Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-year-1-of-the-computer-science-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2019/discrete-mathematics-continuous-mathematics-and-probability/8/b/i/solution

This is a Galton-Watson process with offspring count with probability and with probability . The descendants of distinct initial individuals evolve independently, so
for every finite initial size . Conditioning on the first individual's outcome and applying the law of total probability gives
The equation factors as
Its roots are and . Since , the second root exceeds one and cannot be a probability. Therefore and for every finite initial size. The population reaches the absorbing state zero almost surely; no choice between two admissible fixed-point probabilities remains in this subcritical case.

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