An introduction to mathematical models of coagulation–fragmentation processes: A discrete deterministic mean-field approach

We summarise the properties and the fundamental mathematical results associated with basic models which describe coagulation and fragmentation processes in a deterministic manner and in which cluster size is a discrete quantity (an integer multiple of some basic unit size). In particular, we discuss Smoluchowski’s equation for aggregation, the Becker–Döring model of simultaneous aggregation and fragmentation, and more general models involving coagulation and fragmentation.