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arXiv:cond-mat/0001177 · Physical review. E, Statistical physics, plasmas, fluids, and related interdisciplinary topics

Pair contact process with diffusion: A new type of nonequilibrium critical behavior?

Haye Hinrichsen B

Published Feb 15, 2001• 63 citations
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Abstract

In the preceding article Carlon et al. investigate the critical behavior of the pair contact process with diffusion. Using density matrix renormalization group methods, they estimate the critical exponents, raising the possibility that the transition might belong to the same universality class as branching annihilating random walks with even numbers of offspring. This is surprising since the model does not have an explicit parity-conserving symmetry. In order to understand this contradiction, we estimate the critical exponents by Monte Carlo simulations. The results suggest that the transition might belong to a different universality class that has not been investigated before.

DOI
10.1103/physreve.63.036102

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In the preceding article Carlon et al. investigate the critical behavior of the pair contact process with diffusion. Using density matrix renormalization group methods, they estimate the critical exponents, raising the possibility that the transition might belong to the same universality class as branching annihilating random walks with even numbers of offspring. This is surprising since the model does not have an explicit parity-conserving symmetry. In order to understand this contradiction, we estimate the critical exponents by Monte Carlo simulations. The results suggest that the transition might belong to a different universality class that has not been investigated before.
We introduce a parity conserving version of the contact process, which can be treated using a series expansion technique. Both Pad\'e approximants for the series and numerical simulations for the derivative of the order parameter show that the critical exponent $\ensuremath{\beta}$ is consistent with the conjecture $\ensuremath{\beta}\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}=\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}1$. Dynamical Monte Carlo simulations confirm that the model belongs to the branching annihilating random walk with an even number of offsprings universality class.
Recently it was suggested that a pair contact process with diffusion (PCPD) might represent an independent new universality class different from the directed percolation (DP) and the parity conservation (PC) class. The dynamics in the PCPD are usually controlled by two independent parameters. The critical exponents for the PCPD are known to have different values for varying values of the two independent parameters. However, once the diffusion and annihilation (or coagulation) rate in the PCPD is tuned in a way that the process without offspring production is exactly solvable, a well-defined set of the exponents for the PCPD is obtained. Then dynamics are controlled by only one independent parameter. The obtained critical exponents are different than those of DP and PC. The critical exponents satisfy the generalized hyperscaling relation within numerical errors.
The pair contact process with diffusion (PCPD) is studied with a standard Monte Carlo approach and with simulations at fixed densities. A standard analysis of the simulation results, based on the particle densities or on the pair densities, yields inconsistent estimates for the critical exponents. However, if a well-chosen linear combination of the particle and pair densities is used, leading corrections can be suppressed, and consistent estimates for the independent critical exponents delta=0.16(2) , beta=0.28(2) , and z=1.58 are obtained. Since these estimates are also consistent with their values in directed percolation (DP), we conclude that the PCPD falls in the same universality class as DP.
Recently, Takayasu and Tretyakov [Phys. Rev. Lett. 68, 3060 (1992)] studied branching annihilating random walks with n=1-5 offsprings. These models exhibit a continuous phase transition to an absorbing state. Steady-state simulations yielded an estimate for the order parameter critical exponent \ensuremath{\beta} different from that of directed percolation. This result is quite surprising, as the universality class of directed percolation is known to be very robust. I have studied the critical behavior of the one-dimensional model with n=1 and 3 using time-dependent Monte Carlo simulations, and determined three critical exponents, all of which are in agreement with directed percolation.
Many non-equilibrium systems display dynamic phase transitions from active to absorbing states, where fluctuations cease entirely. Based on a field theory representation of the master equation, the critical behavior can be analyzed by means of the renormalization group. The resulting universality classes for single-species systems are reviewed here. Generically, the critical exponents are those of directed percolation (Reggeon field theory), with critical dimension d_c = 4. Yet local particle number parity conservation in even-offspring branching and annihilating random walks implies an inactive phase (emerging below d_c' = 4/3) that is characterized by the power laws of the pair annihilation reaction, and leads to different critical exponents at the transition. For local processes without memory, the pair contact process with diffusion represents the only other non-trivial universality class. The consistent treatment of restricted site occupations and quenched random reaction rates are important open issues.