Note on a one-dimensional system of annihilating particles

Abstract

We consider a system of annihilating particles where particles start from the points of a Poisson process on either the full-line or positive half-line and move at constant i.i.d. speeds until collision. When two particles collide, they annihilate. We assume the law of speeds to be symmetric. We prove almost sure annihilation of positive-speed particles started from the positive half-line, and existence of a regime of survival of zero-speed particles on the full-line in the case when speeds can only take 3 values. We also state open questions.