Coupling and the Non-degeneracy of the Limit in Some Plasmid Reproduction Models

We settle a problem raised by Seneta and Tavare concerning the normalized limits of several plasmid reproduction models. We also show that for countably infinitely many type branching processes the extinction probability and the mass at the origin of the supercritical limit need not be the same, in contrast to the finite type case. Copyright 1997 Academic Press