On some modes of population growth leading to R. A. Fisher's logarithmic series distribution
Biometrika, (1948)The author discusses a ``birth-and-death process'' for which the Kolmogorov differential equations assume the form $$ P_n'(t)=-n(a+b)+cP_n(t)+(n-1)a+cP_n-1(t)\\ +(n+1)bP_n+1(t), $$ where $P_n(t)$ is the probability of a population size $n$. The case $c0$ corresponds to mortality and fertility proportional to the actual population size. The $c$-term accounts for an increase by immigration. The generating function of $P_n(t)$ is obtained and it is shown that for small $c$ one obtains approximations to R. A. Fisher's ``logarithmic series distribution'' which has found several applications in biology..Description
On some modes of population growth leading to {R}. {A}. {F}isher's logarithmic series distribution