Domains of attraction for the subcritical Galton-Watson branching process

Abstract

Let F(z) = σ fjzj be the generating function for the offspring distribution {fj} from a single ancestor in the usual Galton-Watson process. It is well-known (see Harris [1]) that if Π(z) is the generating function of the distribution of ancestors in the 0th generation, the distribution of offspring at the nth generation has generating function where Fn(z), the nth functional iterate of F(z), gives the distribution of offspring at the nth generation from a single ancestor.