A reverse duality for the ASEP with open boundaries

Abstract

We prove a duality between the asymmetric simple exclusion process (ASEP) with non-conservative open boundary conditions and an asymmetric exclusion process with particle-dependent hopping rates and conservative reflecting boundaries. This is a reverse duality in the sense that the duality function relates the measures of the dual processes rather than expectations. Specifically, for a certain parameter manifold of the boundary parameters of the open ASEP this duality expresses the time evolution of a family of shock product measures with $N$ microscopic shocks in terms of the time evolution of $N$ particles in the dual process. The reverse duality also elucidates some so far poorly understood properties of the stationary matrix product measures of the open ASEP given by finite-dimensional matrices.