No label defined (Q4220652)

This thesis considers particle systems governed by binary interactions of coagulation-fragmentation type. Such systems arise from many natural processes such as the formation of stars and galaxies in astronomy, polymerization in chemistry, and the formation of clouds and fogs in meteorology. The particles in the model are characterized by an additive size factor \(k\) (related to mass or volume) for \(k=1,2,\dots\). The \(k=1\) particles are called monomers; particles composed of \(k\) monomers are called \(k\)-mers. Natural variables in the dynamics of these particle systems are concentrations \(u^k(t)\) of \(k\)-mers as a function of time. It is possible to write a system of differential equations for the variables \(u^k\), \(k= 1,2,\dots\) which takes into account binary coagulation-fragmentation interactions. This system of differential equations is infinite-dimensional, and it is formally derived by balance-of-mass arguments of the type ``the average number of coalescences of particles of size \(i\) and particles of size \(j\) in a small interval \(dt\) is \(\phi_{ij} u^iu^jdt\)''. It is on the clarification of this statement that the author's work focuses. The main result of the research consists of conditions on the coagulation coefficients \(\phi_{ij}\) under which the solutions to the infinite system of differential equations can be approximated in some norm by concentrations derived from a finite particle system with coagulation-fragmentation dynamics.