The Two-Stage Contact Process

Stephen M. Krone

Abstract

We introduce a multi-type interacting particle system which is a natural generalization of the contact process. Here, individuals in the population have 2 life stages, young and adult. Only adults can give birth and each new offspring is young. Transition from young to adult occurs at constant rate, and individuals die at rates that depend on their life stage. Important to the analysis of this process is the construction a multi-type dual process.