Steady distribution of the incremental model for bacteria proliferation

Abstract

We study the mathematical properties of a model of cell division structured by two variables, the size and the size increment, in the case of a linear growth rate and a self-similar fragmentation kernel. We first show that one can construct a solution to the related two dimensional eigenproblem associated to the eigenvalue 1 from a solution of a certain one dimensional fixed point problem. Then we prove the existence and uniqueness of this fixed point in the appropriate ${\mathrm{L}}^1$ weighted space under general hypotheses on the division rate. Knowing such an eigenfunction proves useful as a first step in studying the long time asymptotic behaviour of the Cauchy problem.

18 pages, 3 figures