Estimating the division rate of the growth-fragmentation equation with a self-similar kernel

Abstract

We consider the growth-fragmentation equation and we address the problem of estimating the division rate from the stable size distribution of the population, which is easily measured, but non-smooth. We propose a method based on the Mellin transform for growth-fragmentation equations with self-similar kernels. We build a sequence of functions which converges to the density of the population in division, simultaneously in several weighted spaces, as the measurement error goes to 0. This improves the previous results for self-similar kernels and allows us to understand the partial results for general fragmentation kernels. Numerical simulations confirm the theoretical results. Moreover, our numerical method is tested on real biological data, arising from a bacteria growth and fission experiment.