Pemantle's min-plus binary tree

Abstract

We consider a stochastic process that describes several particles interacting by either merging or annihilation. When two particles merge, they combine their masses; when annihilation occurs, only the particle of smallest mass survives. Particles start at the bottom of a binary tree of depth N and move towards the root. Assuming that merging or annihilation happens independently at random, we determine the limit law of the final mass of the system in the large N limit.