We introduce a class of non-uniform random recursive trees grown with an attachment preference for young age. Via the Chen–Stein method of Poisson approximation, we find that the outdegree of a node is characterized in the limit by ‘perturbed’ Poisson laws, and the perturbation diminishes as the node index increases. As the perturbation is attenuated, a pure Poisson limit ultimately emerges in later phases. Moreover, we derive asymptotics for the proportion of leaves and show that the limiting fraction is less than one half. Finally, we study the insertion depth in a random tree in this class. For the insertion depth, we find the exact probability distribution, involving Stirling numbers, and consequently we find the exact and asymptotic mean and variance. Under appropriate normalization, we derive a concentration law and a limiting normal distribution. Some of these results contrast with their counterparts in the uniform attachment model, and some are similar.

We investigate protected nodes in random recursive trees. The exact mean of the number of such nodes is obtained by recurrence, and a linear asymptotic equivalent follows. A nonlinear recurrence for the variance shows that the variance grows linearly, too. It follows that the number of protected nodes in a random recursive tree, upon proper scaling, converges in probability to a constant.

We investigate the Zagreb index, one of the topological indices, of random recursive trees in this paper. Through a recurrence equation, the first two moments of Z n , the Zagreb index of a random recursive tree of size n, are obtained. We also show that the random process {Z n − E[Z n ], n ≥ 1} is a martingale. Then the asymptotic normality of the Zagreb index of a random recursive tree is given by an application of the martingale central limit theorem. Finally, two other topological indices are also discussed in passing.

We consider branching random walks with binary search trees as underlying trees. We show that the occupation measure of the branching random walk, up to some scaling factors, converges weakly to a deterministic measure. The limit depends on the stable law whose domain of attraction contains the law of the increments. The existence of such stable law is our fundamental hypothesis. As a consequence, using a one-to-one correspondence between binary trees and plane trees, we give a description of the asymptotics of the profile of recursive trees. The main result is also applied to the study of the size of the fragments of some homogeneous fragmentations.

Uniform sequential tree-building aggregation of n particles is analyzed together with the effect of the avalanche that takes place when a subtree rooted at a uniformly chosen vertex is removed. For large n, the expected subtree size is found to be ≃ logn both for the tree of size n and the tree that remains after an avalanche. Repeated breakage-restoration cycles are seen to give independent avalanches which attain size k(1 ≤ k ≤ n-1) with probability (k(k+1))-1 and restored trees that are recursive.