Model for studying branching processes, multiplicity distributions, and non-Poissonian fluctuations in heavy-ion collisions.

A change is made in a statistical framework by introducing a set of variables called ancestral or stochastic. This leads to an underlying dynamics based on branching laws, lines of descent in an hierarchical topology, period doublings, cascades, and clans. Above a certain branching probability, a percolative feature suddenly appears. Power laws emerge and cascade points arise and end at golden mean (square root (5-1)/2.