Consider N particles, which merge into clusters according to the rule: a cluster of size x and a cluster of size y merge at (stochastic) rate K(x; y)=N , where K is a specified rate kernel. This MarcusLushnikov model of stochastic coalescence, and the underlying deterministic approximation given by the Smoluchowski coagulation equations, have an extensive scientific literature. Some mathematical literature (Kingman's coalescent in population genetics; component sizes in random graphs) implicitly studies the special cases K(x; y) = 1 and K(x; y) = xy. We attempt a wide-ranging survey. General kernels are only now starting to be studied rigorously, so many interesting open problems appear. Keywords. branching process, coalescence, continuum tree, densitydependent Markov process, gelation, random graph, random tree, Smoluchowski coagulation equation Research supported by N.S.F. Grant DMS96-22859 1 Introduction Models, implicitly or explicitly stochastic, of coalescence (= coagulati...

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Regard an element of the set \Delta := f(x 1 ; x 2 ; : : :) : x 1 x 2 : : : 0; X i x i = 1g as a fragmentation of unit mass into clusters of masses x i . The additive coalescent of Evans and Pitman (1997) is the \Delta-valued Markov process in which pairs of clusters of masses fx i ; x j g merge into a cluster of mass x i +x j at rate x i +x j . They showed that a version (X 1 (t); \Gamma1 ! t ! 1) of this process arises as a n !1 weak limit of the process started at time \Gamma 1 2 log n with n clusters of mass 1=n. We show this standard additive coalescent may be constructed from the continuum random tree of Aldous (1991,1993) by Poisson splitting along the skeleton of the tree. We describe the distribution of X 1 (t) on \Delta at a fixed time t. We show that the size of the cluster containing a given atom, as a process in t, has a simple representation in terms of the stable subordinator of index 1=2. As t ! \Gamma1, we establish a Gaussian limit for (centered and norm...

Partition-valued and measure-valued coalescent Markov processes are constructed whose state describes the decomposition of a finite total mass m into a finite or countably infinite number of masses with sum m, and whose evolution is determined by the following intuitive prescription: each pair of masses of magnitudes x and y runs the risk of a binary collision to form a single mass of magnitude x+y at rate (x; y), for some non-negative, symmetric collision rate kernel (x; y). Such processes with finitely many masses have been used to model polymerization, coagulation, condensation, and the evolution of galactic clusters by gravitational attraction. With a suitable choice of state space, and under appropriate restrictions on and the initial distribution of mass, it is shown that such processes can be constructed as Feller or Feller-like processes. A number of further results are obtained for the additive coalescent with collision kernel (x; y) = x + y. This process, which arises fro...

Various enumerations of labeled trees and forests, including Cayley's formula n n\Gamma2 for the number of trees labeled by [n], and Cayley's multinomial expansion over trees, are derived from the following coalescent construction of a sequence of random forests (R n ; R n\Gamma1 ; : : : ; R 1 ) such that R k has uniform distribution over the set of all forests of k rooted trees labeled by [n]. Let R n be the trivial forest with n root vertices and no edges. For n k 2, given that R n ; : : : ; R k have been defined so that R k is a rooted forest of k trees, define R k\Gamma1 by addition to R k of a single edge picked uniformly at random from the set of n(k \Gamma 1) edges which when added to R k yield a rooted forest of k \Gamma 1 trees. This coalescent construction is related to a model for a physical process of clustering or coagulation, the additive coalescent in which a system of masses is subject to binary coalescent collisions, with each pair of masses of magnitude...

Asymptotics are obtained for the mean, variance and higher moments as well as for the distribution of the Wiener index of a random tree from a simply generated family (or, equivalently, a critical Galton-- Watson tree). We also establish a joint asymptotic distribution of the Wiener index and the internal path length, as well as asymptotics for the covariance and other mixed moments. The limit laws are described using functionals of a Brownian excursion. The methods include both Aldous' theory of the continuum random tree and analysis of generating functions. 1.

We address the question of finite-size scaling in percolation by studying bond percolation in a finite box of side length n, both in two and in higher dimensions. In dimension d = 2, we obtain a complete characterization of finite-size scaling. In dimensions d > 2, we establish the same results under a set of hypotheses related to so-called scaling and hyperscaling postulates which are widely believed to hold up to d = 6.

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Consider i.i.d. percolation with retention parameter p on an infinite graph G. There is a well known critical parameter p c 2 [0; 1] for the existence of infinite open clusters. Recently, it has been shown that when G is quasi-transitive, there is another critical value p u 2 [p c ; 1] such that the number of infinite clusters is a.s. 1 for p 2 (p c ; p u ), and there is a unique infinite cluster for p ? p u . We prove a simultaneous version of this result in the canonical coupling of the percolation processes for all p 2 [0; 1]; in particular, a.s. simultaneous uniqueness holds for all p ? p u . Simultaneously for all p 2 (p c ; p u ), we also prove that each infinite cluster has uncountably many ends. For p ? p c we prove that all infinite clusters are indistinguishable by robust properties. Under the additional assumption that G is unimodular, we prove that a.s. for all p 1 ! p 2 in (p c ; p u ), every infinite cluster at level p 2 contains infinitely many infinite clusters at lev...

This paper provides tight bounds for the moments of the width of rooted labeled trees with n nodes, answering an open question of Odlyzko and Wilf (1987). To this aim, we use one of the many one-to-one correspondences between trees and parking functions, and also a precise coupling between parking functions and the empirical processes of mathematical statistics. Our result turns out to be a consequence of the strong convergence of empirical processes to the Brownian bridge (Komlos, Major and Tusnady, 1975).