Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2002 / ia / Paper 2 / 12F / a / Solution

A branching process models reproduction through successive generations. In the Galton-Watson process used here, every individual independently produces a nonnegative integer number of offspring with a common offspring distribution; these reproduction counts are independent across individuals and generations. If $X_n$ is the generation size, thenwhere the ${\xi }_{n,j}$ have that distribution and the empty sum is zero. Thus zero is absorbing: once a generation is empty, every subsequent generation is empty.