American Physical Society, Physical Review Letters, 25(92), 2004
DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.92.250602
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We analyse the motion of a system of particles suspended in a fluid which has a random velocity field. There are coagulating and non-coagulating phases. We show that the phase transition is related to a Kramers problem, and use this to determine the phase diagram, as a function of the dimensionless inertia of the particles, epsilon, and a measure of the relative intensities of potential and solenoidal components of the velocity field, Gamma. We find that the phase line is described by a function which is non-analytic at epsilon=0, and which is related to escape over a barrier in the Kramers problem. We discuss the physical realisations of this phase transition. ; Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures