Dynamics of finite inhomogeneous particle systems with exclusion interaction (Q6140916)

Consider a finite number of particles moving according to independent continuous time nearest-neighbor random walks on \(\mathbb Z\) subject to an exclusion interaction. For any jump rates of the particles (such that the jump rates to the right are all strictly positive), the authors determine explicitly (and by means of a linear-time algorithm) a unique partition of the particles into so-called stable clouds and prove that (a) particles in each cloud satisfy a strong law of large numbers with a same explicit speed, (b) the limiting relative distribution of particles within each cloud is an explicit product-geometric distribution and (c) the distances between different clouds diverge in probability. Furthermore, in the case, when the corresponding partition of particles consists of just one cloud, the authors establish a central limit theorem describing the fluctuations around the law of large numbers. Various examples are discussed. The approach is based on a connection between exclusion processes and Jackson networks, more precisely, on translating the classical results of \textit{J. B. Goodman} and \textit{W. A. Massey} [J. Appl. Probab. 21, 860--869 (1984; Zbl 0562.60096)] to the context of exclusion processes; the central limit theorem is a consequence of a general central limit theorem of \textit{V. Anantharam} and \textit{T. Konstantopoulos} [Adv. Appl. Probab. 27, No. 2, 476--509 (1995; Zbl 0823.60063)].