Abstract: Dormancy is a concept that appears in a multitude of biological systems, and refers to the reversible transition of an organism or cell into an inactive state for short or long periods of time. In recent years, mathematical modelling of dormancy has received some attention, in particular in population genetics, but also in related fields like interacting particle systems. 

In this talk, we will introduce the concept of dormancy, and its various occurrences, and present some stochastic models from population genetics that include dormant forms. We will define the so-called seed bank coalescent as the genealogy of an evolving population with dormancy. We will review some of its specific properties, for example an extended time to the most recent common ancestor, and discuss different time scales. From a mathematical perspective, duality of Markov processes will play a central role.

Further, we will present some examples of dormancy in interacting particle systems, in particular the contact process with dormancy.

This talk is based on joint work with Jochen Blath, Adrián González Casanova, Michel Reitmeier, and Maite Wilke Berenguer.