  Random critical branching trees (CBTs) are generated by the multiplicative
branching process, where the branching number is determined stochastically,
independent of the degree of their ancestor. Here we show analytically that
despite this stochastic independence, there exists the degree-degree
correlation (DDC) in the CBT and it is disassortative. Moreover, the skeletons
of fractal networks, the maximum spanning trees formed by the edge betweenness
centrality, behave similarly to the CBT in the DDC. This analytic solution and
observation support the argument that the fractal scaling in complex networks
originates from the disassortativity in the DDC.
