On the consistency of cell division processes

Abstract

For a class of cell division processes, generating tessellations of the Euclidean space $\mathbb{R}^d$, spatial consistency is investigated. This addresses the problem whether the distribution of these tessellations, restricted to a bounded set $V$, depends on the choice of a larger region $W\supset V$ where the construction of the cell division process is performed. This can also be understood as the problem of boundary effects in the cell division procedure. In Nagel and Wei\ss\ (2005) it was shown that the STIT tessellations are spatially consistent There were hints that the STIT tessellation process might be the only translation-invariant cell division process that has such a consistency property. In the present paper it is shown that, within a reasonable wide class of cell division processes, the STIT tessellations are the only ones that are consistent.