Random recursive trees and the Bolthausen-Sznitman coalescent

We describe a representation of the Bolthausen-Sznitman coalescent in terms of cutting of random recursive trees. Using this representation, we prove results concerning the final collision of the coalescent restricted to [n]: we show that the distribution of the number of blocks involved in the final collision converges as n -> infinity, and obtain a scaling law for the sizes of these blocks. We also consider the discrete-time Markov chain giving the number of blocks after each collision of the coalescent restricted to [n]; we show that the transition probabilities of the time-reversal of this Markov chain have limits as n -> infinity. These results can be interpreted as describing a post-gelation phase of the Bolthausen-Sznitman coalescent, in which a giant cluster containing almost all of the mass has already formed and the remaining small blocks are being absorbed.