Critical case stochastic phylogenetic tree model via the Laplace transform

Abstract

Birth-and-death models are now a common mathematical tool to describe branching patterns observed in real-world phylogenetic trees. Liggett and Schinazi (2009) is one such example. The authors propose a simple birth-and-death model that is compatible with phylogenetic trees of both influenza and HIV, depending on the birth rate parameter. An interesting special case of this model is the critical case where the birth rate equals the death rate. This is a non-trivial situation and to study its asymptotic behaviour we employed the Laplace transform. With this we correct the proof of Liggett and Schinazi (2009) in the critical case.