Asymptotic formula for a partition function of reversible coagulation-fragmentation processes (Q696289)

The authors investigate certain distributions \(\mu_N= \mu_N(a_1, \dots,a_N)\) on the set of all partitions of \(N\) depending on parameters \(a_1, \dots, a_N\in ]0,\infty[\). These distributions are quite interesting, as they appear as equilibrium measures for Markov process models of coagulation and fragmentation. The \(\mu_N\) are given explicitly by multinomial-type expressions up to the norming constants \(c_N=c_N(a_1, \dots,a_N)\), so-called partition functions, which also appear in other formulas regarding the \(\mu_N\). It was conjectured by R. Durrett, B. Granovsky, and S. Gueron that the existence of \(\lim a_N/a_{N+1}>0\) implies the existence of \(\lim c_N/c_{N+1}>0\). This conjecture is proved under an additional condition, and an asymptotic formula for the \(c_N\) is derived in this case. The proof is based on an integral representation for the \(c_N\) which involves the characteristic functions for sums of certain independent random variables. A local limit theorem for these sums then leads to results mentioned above.