Asymptotic frequency of shapes in supercritical branching trees

preprint2015arXivOpen access

Abstract

The shapes of branching trees have been linked to disease transmission patterns. In this paper we use the general Crump-Mode-Jagers branching process to model an outbreak of an infectious disease under mild assumptions. Introducing a new class of characteristic functions, we are able to derive a formula for the limit of the frequency of the occurrences of a given shape in a general tree. The computational challenges concerning the evaluation of this formula are in part overcome using the Jumping Chronological Contour Process. We apply the formula to derive the limit of the frequency of cherries, pitchforks and double cherries in the constant rate birth-death model, and the frequency of cherries under a non-constant death rate.

Explore this paper’s authors, topics and related work.

Building this map preview

BZPEER is loading the nearby papers, people, topics and institutions for this page.

Reviews 0

Write a reviewWrite

No reviews yet.

Discussion 0

Add a commentWrite

No comments yet.