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arXiv:cond-mat/0511456 · Journal of Physics A Mathematical and General

Reaction–diffusion processes and non-perturbative renormalization group

Léonie Canet

Published Jun 7, 2006• 24 citations
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Abstract

This paper is devoted to investigating non-equilibrium phase transitions to an absorbing state, which are generically encountered in reaction–diffusion processes. It is a review, based on Canet, Delamotte, Deloubrière and Wschebor (2004 Phys. Rev. Lett. 92 195703); Canet, Chaté and Delamotte (2004 Phys. Rev. Lett. 92 255703) and Canet et al (2005 Phys. Rev. Lett. 95 100601), of recent progress in this field that has been allowed by a non-perturbative renormalization group approach. We mainly focus on branching and annihilating random walks and show that their critical properties strongly rely on non-perturbative features and that hence the use of a non-perturbative method turns out to be crucial to get a correct picture of the physics of these models.

DOI
10.1088/0305-4470/39/25/s07

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This paper is devoted to investigating non-equilibrium phase transitions to an absorbing state, which are generically encountered in reaction–diffusion processes. It is a review, based on Canet, Delamotte, Deloubrière and Wschebor (2004 Phys. Rev. Lett. 92 195703); Canet, Chaté and Delamotte (2004 Phys. Rev. Lett. 92 255703) and Canet et al (2005 Phys. Rev. Lett. 95 100601), of recent progress in this field that has been allowed by a non-perturbative renormalization group approach. We mainly focus on branching and annihilating random walks and show that their critical properties strongly rely on non-perturbative features and that hence the use of a non-perturbative method turns out to be crucial to get a correct picture of the physics of these models.
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.
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.
We study in further detail particle models displaying a boundary-induced absorbing state phase transition [Deloubrière and van Wijland Phys. Rev. E 65, 046104 (2002) and Barato and Hinrichsen, Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 165701 (2008)]. These are one-dimensional systems consisting of a single site (the boundary) where creation and annihilation of particles occur, and a bulk where particles move diffusively. We study different versions of these models and confirm that, except for one exactly solvable bosonic variant exhibiting a discontinuous transition and trivial exponents, all the others display nontrivial behavior, with critical exponents differing from their mean-field values, representing a universality class. Finally, the relation of these systems with a (0+1)-dimensional non-Markovian process is discussed.
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.
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.