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Abstract. In order to prove new existence results in Brill-Noether theory for rank-2 vector bundles with fixed special determinant, we develop foundational definitions and results for limit linear series of higher-rank vector bundles. These include two entirely new constructions of “linked linear series ” general-izing earlier work of the author for the classical rank-1 case, as well as a new canonical stack structure for the previously developed theory due to Eisenbud, Harris and Teixidor i Bigas. This last structure is new even in the classical rank-1 case, and yields the first proper moduli space of Eisenbud-Harris limit linear series for families of curves. We also develop results comparing thes