A pathwise iterative approach to the extinction of branching processes with countably many types

Abstract

We consider the extinction events of Galton-Watson processes with countably infinitely many types. In particular, we construct truncated and augmented Galton-Watson processes with finite but increasing sets of types. A pathwise approach is then used to show that, under some sufficient conditions, the corresponding sequence of extinction probability vectors converges to the global extinction probability vector of the Galton-Watson processes with countably infinitely many types. This gives rise to a number of iterative methods for the computation of the global extinction probability vector.