Reassociation

Reassociation is the process of forming an association, bond, or relation again after it has been broken or altered. In a general sense, reassociation can refer to reestablishing social or functional connections as well as to specific scientific or mathematical concepts that involve re-forming bonds or groupings.

In chemistry and biochemistry, reassociation most commonly describes the reverse of dissociation: two fragments, atoms, or molecules formerly held together by a bond can recombine when they encounter one another under suitable conditions. This concept is central to reaction kinetics, polymer science, and photochemistry, for example in the reassociation (or reannealing) of excited molecules and in radical-pair recombination. DNA reassociation, the process by which complementary DNA strands renature after denaturation, is a classic case with applications such as Cot analysis to measure genome complexity and repetitive content.

In mathematics and related fields, reassociation can describe the re-grouping of terms in an associative operation. Because certain binary operations are associative, expressions like (a·b)·c and a·(b·c) yield the same result; the term reassociation is used when discussing the flexibility of bracketing or when reorganizing a computation or algebraic structure.

In social contexts, reassociation can refer to reestablishing relationships or affiliations after a period of separation or disruption. Across disciplines, reassociation denotes the re-formation of connections after disruption and is often studied in terms of conditions that facilitate or hinder the process.