English

The ballistic annihilation threshold is 1/4

Probability 2018-09-03 v1

Abstract

We consider a system of annihilating particles where particles start from the points of a Poisson process on the line, move at constant i.i.d. speeds symmetrically distributed in {-1,0,+1} and annihilate upon collision. We prove that particles with speed 0 vanish almost surely if and only if their initial density is smaller than or equal to 1/4, and give an explicit formula for the probability of survival of a stationary particle, which is in accordance with the predictions of [Droz et al. 1995]. The present proof relies essentially on an identity proved in a recent paper by J. Haslegrave.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1808.10731,
  title  = {The ballistic annihilation threshold is 1/4},
  author = {Vladas Sidoravicius and Laurent Tournier},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1808.10731},
  year   = {2018}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-23T03:50:29.651Z