Random fragmentation-coalescence processes out of equilibrium

Stochastic coalescence models describe how blocks of mass randomly join together over time according certain rules of random evolution. Conversely, stochastic fragmentation models describe how blocks of mass break apart over time, again according to certain rules of random evolution. Processes with one or antoher of theses actions, have been widely investigated. Coalescence has been an active field since the seminal work of Smoluchowski 100 years ago. Fragmentation is a more recently investigated phenomenon, with the the main foundational development starting from the work of Bertoin in the early 2000s.

Little has been done, howver, in the rigorous mathematical literature regarding the combination of both actions of fragmentation and coalescence. Despite this fact, there is a strong motivation for the treatement of such models in the scientific literature thanks to applications in physical chemistry and genealogy, and more recently in group dynamics in the social sciences and biology.The purpose of this project is to thus investigate new probabilistic techniques to characterise the dynamics of tractable families of stochastic fragmentation-coalescence processes.

One of the mathematical difficulties with such models is that they do not possess so-called reversibility properties. This means that when considering such processes time reversed, they do not exibit the mathematical convenience that would allow known analytical techniques to be used. For this reason, their analysis is generally difficult.

In this proposal we will look at some special classes of fragmentation-coalescence models that were only very recently introduced into the literature (by the PI and CI as well as others) and for which some degree of tractability has already been demonstrated. We will use a mixture of techniques to analyse their stationary and quasi-stationary behaviour, exposing currently unknown behaviours and laying out a deeper understanding of how such models can be treated in general.