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arXiv:cond-mat/0402433 · Journal of Physics A Mathematical and General

The non-equilibrium phase transition of the pair-contact process with diffusion

Malte Henkel, Haye Hinrichsen

Published Jul 1, 2004• 84 citations
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Abstract

The pair-contact process 2A->3A, 2A->0 with diffusion of individual particles is a simple branching-annihilation processes which exhibits a phase transition from an active into an absorbing phase with an unusual type of critical behaviour which had not been seen before. Although the model has attracted considerable interest during the past few years it is not yet clear how its critical behaviour can be characterized and to what extent the diffusive pair-contact process represents an independent universality class. Recent research is reviewed and some standing open questions are outlined.

DOI
10.1088/0305-4470/37/28/r01

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The pair-contact process 2A->3A, 2A->0 with diffusion of individual particles is a simple branching-annihilation processes which exhibits a phase transition from an active into an absorbing phase with an unusual type of critical behaviour which had not been seen before. Although the model has attracted considerable interest during the past few years it is not yet clear how its critical behaviour can be characterized and to what extent the diffusive pair-contact process represents an independent universality class. Recent research is reviewed and some standing open questions are outlined.
Systems with absorbing (trapped) states may exhibit a nonequilibrium phase transition from a noise-free inactive phase into an ever-lasting active phase. We briefly review the absorbing critical phenomena and universality classes, and discuss over the controversial issues on the pair contact process with diffusion (PCPD). Two different approaches are proposed to clarify its universality issue, which unveil strong evidences that the PCPD belongs to a new universality class other than the directed percolation class.
I study a nonequilibrium lattice model, the pair contact process, in which pairs of particles annihilate with probability p or else create a particle at a vacant nearest neighbor. The model exhibits a continuous phase transition from an active state, with an ongoing production of particles, to an absorbing state without pairs. The model has infinitely many absorbing states. Computer simulations in 1D yielded critical exponents consistent with directed percolation, for the first time placing a model with infinitely many absorbing states firmly in the directed-percolation universality class.
The pair contact process (PCP) is a nonequilibrium stochastic model which, like the basic contact process (CP), exhibits a phase transition to an absorbing state. The two models belong to the directed percolation (DP) universality class, despite the fact that the PCP possesses infinitely many absorbing configurations whereas the CP has but one. The critical behavior of the PCP with hopping by particles (PCPD) is as yet unclear. Here we study a version of the PCP in which nearest-neighbor particle pairs can hop but individual particles cannot. Using quasistationary simulations for three values of the diffusion probability ( D = 0.1, 0.5 and 0.9), we find convincing evidence of DP-like critical behavior.
The steady-state phase diagram of the one-dimensional reaction-diffusion model $2\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{A}3A,$ $2\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{A}0$ is studied through the non-Hermitian density matrix renormalization group. In the absence of single-particle diffusion the model reduces to the pair-contact process, which has a phase transition in the universality class of directed percolation (DP) and an infinite number of absorbing steady states. When single-particle diffusion is added, the number of absorbing steady states is reduced to 2 and the model no longer shows DP critical behavior. The exponents $\ensuremath{\theta}={\ensuremath{\nu}}_{\ensuremath{\Vert}}/{\ensuremath{\nu}}_{\ensuremath{\perp}}$ and $\ensuremath{\beta}/{\ensuremath{\nu}}_{\ensuremath{\perp}}$ are calculated numerically. The value of $\ensuremath{\beta}/{\ensuremath{\nu}}_{\ensuremath{\perp}}$ is close to the value of the parity conserving universality class, in spite of the absence of local conservation laws.
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.
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.