Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 November 2011
We consider a mathematical model for the motion of a marked monomer in a system of reacting polymers at equilibrium. A well-posed integro-differential initial value problem for the probability of finding the marked monomer in a molecule of a given length is formulated. We prove exponential convergence of the probability to a unique equilibrium distribution. A quite complete spectral analysis is carried out for a self adjoint operator, which is a perturbation of a multiplication operator by an integral operator and is related to the generator of the time evolution.