Abstract
The branching processbranching process is a system of particles (individuals, cellscell, molecules, etc.) which live for a random time and, at some point during lifetime or at the moment of death, produce a random number of progeny. Processes allowing production of new individuals during a parent individual’s lifetime are called the generalbranching processgeneral branching process or Jagers-Crump-Mode processesbranching processJagers-Crump-Mode. They are suitable for description of populations of higher organisms, like vertebrates and plants. Processes that assume production of progeny at the terminal point of parent entity’s lifetime are called the classicalbranching processclassical processes. They are usually sufficient for modeling populations of biological cells, genesgene or biomoleculesbiomolecule. In some processes, like the time-continuous Markov processMarkovprocesstime-continuous, the distinction is immaterial since one of the progeny of a particle may be considered an extension of the parent.