Segregation in annihilation reactions without diffusion: Analysis of correlations

On-lattice coalescence and annihilation of immobile reactants in loopless lattices and beyond

We study the behavior of the chemical reactions A+A-->A+S and A+A-->S+S (where the reactive species A and the inert species S are both assumed to be immobile) embedded on Bethe lattices of arbitrary coordination number z and on a two-dimensional (2D) square lattice. For the Bethe lattice case, exact solutions for the coverage in the A species in terms of the initial condition are obtained. In particular, our results hold for the important case of an infinite one-dimensional (1D) lattice (z=2). The method is based on an expansion in terms of conditional probabilities which exploits a Markovian property of these systems. Along the same lines, an approximate solution for the case of a 2D square lattice is developed. The effect of dilution in a random initial condition is discussed in detail, both for the lattice coverage and for the spatial distribution of reactants.

Majority versus minority dynamics: phase transition in an interacting two-state spin system

We introduce a simple model of opinion dynamics in which binary-state agents evolve due to the influence of agents in a local neighborhood. In a single update step, a fixed-size group is defined and all agents in the group adopt the state of the local majority with probability p or that of the local minority with probability 1-p. For group size G=3, there is a phase transition at p(c)=2/3 in all spatial dimensions. For p>p(c), the global majority quickly predominates, while for p<p(c), the system is driven to a mixed state in which the densities of agents in each state are equal. For p=p(c), the average magnetization (the difference in the density of agents in the two states) is conserved and the system obeys classical voter model dynamics. In one dimension and within a Kirkwood decoupling scheme, the final magnetization in a finite-length system has a nontrivial dependence on the initial magnetization for all p not equal p(c), in agreement with numerical results. At p(c), the exact two-spin correlation functions decay algebraically toward the value 1 and the system coarsens as in the classical voter model.

Directed particle diffusion under "burnt bridges" conditions

We study random walks on a one-dimensional lattice that contains weak connections, so-called "bridges." Each time the walker crosses the bridge from the left or attempts to cross it from the right, the bridge may be destroyed with probability p; this restricts the particle's motion and directs it. Our model, which incorporates asymmetric aspects in an otherwise symmetric hopping mechanism, is very akin to "Brownian ratchets" and to front propagation in autocatalytic A+B-->2A reactions. The analysis of the model and Monte Carlo simulations show that for large p the velocity of the directed motion is extremely sensitive to the distribution of bridges, whereas for small p the velocity can be understood based on a mean-field analysis. The single-particle model advanced by us here allows an almost quantitative understanding of the front's position in the A+B-->2A many-particle reaction.

Nonlinear reactive systems on a lattice viewed as Boolean dynamical systems

We present a stochastic, time-discrete Boolean model that mimics the mesoscopic dynamics of the desorption reactions A+A-->A+S and A+A-->S+S in a one-dimensional lattice. In the continuous-time limit, we derive a hierarchy of dynamical equations for the subset of moments involving contiguous lattice sites. The solution of the hierarchy allows to compute the exact dynamics of the mean coverage for both microscopic and coarse-grained initial conditions, which turn out to be different from the mean field predictions. The evolution equations for the mean coverage and the second-order moments are shown to be equivalent to those provided by a time-continuous master equation. The important role of higher-order fluctuations is brought out by the failure of a truncation scheme retaining only two-particle fluctuation correlations.

Front propagation in one-dimensional autocatalytic reactions: the breakdown of the classical picture at small particle concentrations

The autocatalytic scheme A+B-->2A in a discrete particle system is studied in one dimension via Monte Carlo simulations. We find considerable differences in the results for the front velocities and front forms compared to the classical, continuous picture, which is only valid in the limit of very small reaction probabilities p. Interestingly, we also obtain front propagation velocities fairly below the classical minimal velocity.

Static A+B-->0 annihilation process in arbitrary dimension

The pair annihilation A+B-->0 of static particles distributed at random in a d-dimensional space is studied in the large time regime for a tunneling law. The consequences of a superposition approximation used to close the hierarchy of equations describing the process are analytically explored. It is shown that the density and pair correlations of surviving particles have scaling expressions which display the ordering and clustering effects.