ASEP via Mallows coloring

In this paper we study the asymptotic behavior of the Asymmetric Simple Exclusion Process (=ASEP) with finitely many particles. It turns out that a certain randomized initial condition is the most amenable to such an analysis. Our main result is the behavior of such an ASEP in the KPZ limit regime. A key technical tool introduced in the paper – the coloring of ASEP particles with the use of random Mallows permutations – may be of independent interest.