LARGE DEVIATION RATES FOR BRANCHING PROCESSES. II. THE MULTITYPE CASE

Let {Z(n) : n >= 0} be a p-type(p >= 2) supercritical branching process with mean matrix M. It is known that for any l in R-P, (l . Z(n)/1 . Z(n) - l . Z(n)M/1 . Z(n)) and (l . Z(n)/1 . Z(n) - l . upsilon((1))/1 . upsilon((1))) converge to 0 with probability 1 on the set of nonextinction, where upsilon((1)) is the left eigenvector of M corresponding to its maximal eigenvalue rho and 1 is the vector with all components equal to one. In this paper we study the large deviation aspects of this convergence. It is shown that the large deviation probabilities for these two sequences decay geometrically and under appropriate conditioning supergeometrically.