The combinatorics of the colliding bullets

DOI10.1002/RSA.20869zbMATH Open1446.60008arXiv1709.00789OpenAlexW2949413465MaRDI QIDQ5113944FDOQ5113944

Nicolas Broutin, Jean-François Marckert

Publication date: 19 June 2020

Published in: Random Structures \& Algorithms (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: The finite colliding bullets problem is the following simple problem: consider a gun, whose barrel remains in a fixed direction; let $(V_i{)}_{1leilen}$ be an i.i.d. family of random variables with uniform distribution on $[0,1]$; shoot $n$ bullets one after another at times $1,2,dots,n$, where the $i$th bullet has speed $V_i$. When two bullets collide, they both annihilate. We give the distribution of the number of surviving bullets, and in some generalisation of this model. While the distribution is relatively simple (and we found a number of bold claims online), our proof is surprisingly intricate and mixes combinatorial and geometric arguments; we argue that any rigorous argument must very likely be rather elaborate.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1709.00789

zbMATH Keywords

interacting particlesannihilation

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Central limit and other weak theorems (60F05) Combinatorial probability (60C05)

Cited In (7)

• Three-speed ballistic annihilation: phase transition and universality
• Arrivals are universal in coalescing ballistic annihilation
• Combinatorial universality in three-speed ballistic annihilation
• The bullet problem with discrete speeds
• Non-universality in clustered ballistic annihilation
• Three-velocity coalescing ballistic annihilation
• The phase structure of asymmetric ballistic annihilation

   Recommendations

• Binomial collisions and near collisions 👍 👎
• The bullet problem with discrete speeds 👍 👎
• On the number of hard ball collisions 👍 👎
• A collision probability problem 👍 👎
• On the full number of collisions in certain one-dimensional billiard problems 👍 👎
• Maximum number of collisions among identical hard spheres 👍 👎
• A lower bound for the number of elastic collisions 👍 👎
• Birthday Paradox for Multi-collisions 👍 👎
• Title not available (Why is that?) 👍 👎
• Title not available (Why is that?) 👍 👎

This page was built for publication: The combinatorics of the colliding bullets

Report a bug (only for logged in users!)Click here to report a bug for this page (MaRDI item Q5113944)