title: A condition for the extinction of a branching process with an absorbing lower barrier.
abstract: A branching process with an absorbing lower barrier is considered. This is a Galton-Watson process with the condition that at any generation the number of individuals is greater than a lower barrier or it is equal to zero (i.e. all individuals in populations which are too small die and have no offspring). A necessary and sufficient condition is given for the process to become extinct with probability one. At the end of the paper there are three illustrating examples.
mesh_terms: D008954:Models, Biological; D011157:Population Dynamics; D011158:Population Growth