Condensation and extreme value statistics

We study the factorized steady state of a general class of mass transport models in which mass, a conserved quantity, is transferred stochastically between sites. Condensation in such models is exhibited when above a critical mass density the marginal distribution for the mass at a single site develops a bump, p_cond(m), at large mass m. This bump corresponds to a condensate site carrying a finite fraction of the mass in the system. Here, we study the condensation transition from a different aspect, that of extreme value statistics. We consider the cumulative distribution of the largest mass in the system and compute its asymptotic behaviour. We show three distinct behaviours: at subcritical densities the distribution is Gumbel; at the critical density the distribution is Fréchet, and above the critical density a different distribution emerges. We relate p_cond(m) to the probability density of the largest mass in the system.