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The binomial series givesThus $p_0=1-\alpha >0$ and, for $k\ge 1$,with the factors after $\beta$ omitted for $k=1$. The signs follow from $0<\beta <1$. As $s\uparrow 1$, the series has nonnegative terms and its sum increases to $G(1)=1$, so monotone convergence gives ${\sum }_{k\ge 0}{p}_k=1$. These are therefore genuine probabilities on the nonnegative integers, proving that $G$ is a probability generating function. Its expected value is infinite, since $G^{\prime }(s)=\alpha \beta (1-s{)}^{\beta -1}\to \infty$; finiteness of the mean is not required for this branching process.

Write $G_n(s)=1-A_n(1-s{)}^{{\beta }^n}$. The composition formula gives $A_{n+1}=A_n{\alpha }^{{\beta }^n}$, with $A_0=1$. Consequently $A_n={\alpha }^{1+\beta +\cdots +{\beta }^{n-1}}$, and summing the geometric series yields the explicit generation generating functionThis is the fractional-power offspring generating function and its iterates.