Spectral theory and time asymptotics of size-structured two-phase population models

This work provides a general spectral analysis of size-structured two-phase population models. Systematic functional analytic results are given. We deal first with the case of finite maximal size. We characterize the irreducibility of the corresponding L 1 semigroup in terms of properties of the different parameters of the system. We characterize also the spectral gap property of the semigroup. It turns out that the irreducibility of the semigroup implies the existence of the spectral gap. In particular, we provide a general criterion for asynchronous exponential growth. We show also how to deal with time asymptotics in case of lack of irreducibility. Finally, we extend the theory to the case of infinite maximal size