Aspects of Lagrangian probability distributions

Abstract

Lagrangian distributions are reviewed from the viewpoint of the Galton-Watson process. They are related to the busy period in queuing systems and to the first visit in random walks. A property of the distributions is remarked for the application to vacant vehicles in a new transit system. Combinatorial identities of multinomial and binomial coefficients and related recurrences are shown by a probabilistic method. Based on the identities and recurrences, random forests generated by the Poisson and geometric Galton-Watson processes are characterized.