Oscillations in aggregation-shattering processes

Abstract

We observe never-ending oscillations in systems undergoing aggregation and collision-controlled shattering. Specifically, we investigate aggregation-shattering processes with aggregation kernels K_{i,j} = (i/j)^a+(j/i)^a and shattering kernels F_{i,j}=\lambda K_{i,j}, where i and j are cluster sizes and parameter \lambda quantifies the strength of shattering. When 0<a<1/2, there are no oscillations and the system monotonically approaches to a steady state for all values of \lambda; in this region we obtain an analytical solution for the stationary cluster size distribution. Numerical solutions of the rate equations show that oscillations emerge in the 1/2<a<1 range. When the shattering rate is sufficiently large oscillations decay and eventually disappear, while for \lambda<\lambda_c(a) oscillations apparently persist forever. Thus never-ending oscillations can arise in closed aggregation-shattering processes without sinks and sources of particles.