Bacteria approaching zero growth: Continuous or Discontinuous Phase Transition?

Some bacteria can divide as fast as every 20 minutes, while in suboptimal conditions the population-averaged doubling time of the same bacteria can be as slow as 20 hours. At more severe conditions, bacteria will not be able to sustain steady-state growth and will enter dormancy. But how does this transition from slow growth to dormancy happen? This project aims to characterize the growth to no growth transition experimentally and theoretically in terms of phase transitions.