We present some exact results on the behavior of branching and annihilating random walks, both in the directed percolation and parity conserving universality classes. Contrary to usual perturbation theory, we perform an expansion in the branching rate around the nontrivial pure annihilation (PA) model, whose correlation and response function we compute exactly. With this, the nonuniversal threshold value for having a phase transition in the simplest system belonging to the directed percolation universality class is found to coincide with previous nonperturbative renormalization group (RG) approximate results. We also show that the parity conserving universality class has an unexpected RG fixed point structure, with a PA fixed point which is unstable in all dimensions of physical interest.
We present some exact results on the behavior of branching and annihilating random walks, both in the directed percolation and parity conserving universality classes. Contrary to usual perturbation theory, we perform an expansion in the branching rate around the nontrivial pure annihilation (PA) model, whose correlation and response function we compute exactly. With this, the nonuniversal threshold value for having a phase transition in the simplest system belonging to the directed percolation universality class is found to coincide with previous nonperturbative renormalization group (RG) approximate results. We also show that the parity conserving universality class has an unexpected RG fixed point structure, with a PA fixed point which is unstable in all dimensions of physical interest.
We generalize nonperturbative renormalization group methods to nonequilibrium critical phenomena. Within this formalism, reaction-diffusion processes are described by a scale-dependent effective action, the flow of which is derived. We investigate branching and annihilating random walks with an odd number of offspring. Along with recovering their universal physics (described by the directed percolation universality class), we determine their phase diagrams and predict that a transition occurs even in three dimensions, contrarily to what perturbation theory suggests.
We study the effects of hard core (HC) interactions between different species of particles on two-species branching annihilating random walks with one offspring(BAW2(1)). The single-species model belongs to the directed percolation (DP) universality class. In the BAW2(1) model, a particle creates one particle of the same species in its neighborhood with the probability σ(1−p) and of the different species with (1−σ)(1−p), where p is the hopping probability. Without HC interactions, this model always exhibits the DP-type absorbing transition for all σ. Even with HC interactions, the nature of the phase transitions does not change except near σ=0, where the HC interaction destabilizes and completely wipes away the absorbing phase. The model is always active except at the annihilation fixed point of zero branching rate (p=1). Critical behavior near the annihilation fixed point is characterized by exponents β=ν⊥=1/2 and ν∣∣=1.
Recently, Takayasu and Tretyakov [Phys. Rev. Lett. 68, 3060 (1992)] studied branching annihilating random walks (BAWs) with n=1--5 offspring. These models exhibit a continuous phase transition to an absorbing state. For odd n the models belong to the universality class of directed percolation. For even n the particle number is conserved modulo 2 and the critical behavior is not compatible with directed percolation. In this article I study the BAW with n=4 using time-dependent simulations and finite-size scaling, obtaining precise estimates for various critical exponents. The results are consistent with the conjecture: \ensuremath{\beta}/${\ensuremath{\nu}}_{\mathrm{\ensuremath{\perp}}}$=1/2, ${\ensuremath{\nu}}_{\mathrm{\ensuremath{\parallel}}}$/${\ensuremath{\nu}}_{\mathrm{\ensuremath{\perp}}}$=7/4, \ensuremath{\gamma}=0, \ensuremath{\delta}=2/7, \ensuremath{\eta}=0, and ${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\delta}}}_{\mathit{h}}$=9/2. These critical exponents characterize, respectively, the dependence of the order parameter (\ensuremath{\beta}/${\ensuremath{\nu}}_{\mathrm{\ensuremath{\perp}}}$) and relaxation time (${\ensuremath{\nu}}_{\mathrm{\ensuremath{\parallel}}}$/${\ensuremath{\nu}}_{\mathrm{\ensuremath{\perp}}}$) on system size, the growth of fluctuations (\ensuremath{\gamma}) close to the critical point, the long-time behavior of the probability of survival (\ensuremath{\delta}) and average number of particles (\ensuremath{\eta}) when starting at time zero with just two particles, and finally the decay of the order parameter (${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\delta}}}_{\mathit{h}}$) at the critical point in the presence of an external source.
We introduce a branching annihilating random walker process with two species, particles A and B, which diffuse creating particles of opposite kind (A→A+B, B→B+A) and annihilating instantaneously (A+B→0) when they meet. The model is defined in a one dimensional discrete lattice. For particles A and B, the rate of jumping are pA and pB, and the rate of branching (1−pA) and (1−pB), respectively (0≤pA, pB≤1). In the [pA, pB]-plane it is found two different phases: the vacuum state and the active phase with finite density of particles. The system undergoes irreversible second order phase transitions between these states along a critical line. Monte Carlo results show that the transitions belong to the same universality class as directed percolation.
We review the critical behavior of nonequilibrium systems, such as directed percolation (DP) and branching-annihilating random walks (BARW), which possess phase transitions into absorbing states. After reviewing the bulk scaling behavior of these models, we devote the main part of this review to analyzing the impact of walls on their critical behavior. We discuss the possible boundary universality classes for the DP and BARW models, which can be described by a general scaling theory which allows for two independent surface exponents in addition to the bulk critical exponents. Above the upper critical dimension d c , we review the use of mean field theories, whereas in the regime d<d c , where fluctuations are important, we examine the application of field theoretic methods. Of particular interest is the situation in d=1, which has been extensively investigated using numerical simulations and series expansions. Although DP and BARW fit into the same scaling theory, they can still show very different surface behavior: for DP some exponents are degenerate, a property not shared with the BARW model. Moreover, a "hidden" duality symmetry of BARW in d=1 is broken by the boundary and this relates exponents and boundary conditions in an intricate way.
We review the critical behavior of nonequilibrium systems, such as directed percolation (DP) and branching-annihilating random walks (BARW), which possess phase transitions into absorbing states. After reviewing the bulk scaling behavior of these models, we devote the main part of this review to analyzing the impact of walls on their critical behavior. We discuss the possible boundary universality classes for the DP and BARW models, which can be described by a general scaling theory which allows for two independent surface exponents in addition to the bulk critical exponents. Above the upper critical dimension dc, we review the use of mean field theories, whereas in the regime d < dc, where fluctuations are important, we examine the application of field theoretic methods. Of particular interest is the situation in d = 1, which has been extensively investigated using numerical simulations and series expansions. Although DP and BARW fit into the same scaling theory, they can still show very different surface behavior: for DP some exponents are degenerate, a property not shared with the BARW model. Moreover, a “hidden ” duality symmetry of BARW in d = 1 is broken by the boundary and this relates exponents and boundary conditions in an intricate way.