Spatial Organization in the Reaction A + B --> inert for Particles with a Drift

We describe the spatial structure of particles in the (one dimensional) two-species annihilation reaction A + B --> 0, where both species have a uniform drift in the same direction and like species have a hard core exclusion. For the case of equal initial concentration, at long times, there are three relevant length scales: the typical distance between similar (neighboring) particles, the typical distance between dissimilar (neighboring) particles, and the typical size of a cluster of one type of particles. These length scales are found to be generically different than that found for particles without a drift.Comment: 10 pp of gzipped uuencoded postscrip

Towards a model for protein production rates

In the process of translation, ribosomes read the genetic code on an mRNA and assemble the corresponding polypeptide chain. The ribosomes perform discrete directed motion which is well modeled by a totally asymmetric simple exclusion process (TASEP) with open boundaries. Using Monte Carlo simulations and a simple mean-field theory, we discuss the effect of one or two ``bottlenecks'' (i.e., slow codons) on the production rate of the final protein. Confirming and extending previous work by Chou and Lakatos, we find that the location and spacing of the slow codons can affect the production rate quite dramatically. In particular, we observe a novel ``edge'' effect, i.e., an interaction of a single slow codon with the system boundary. We focus in detail on ribosome density profiles and provide a simple explanation for the length scale which controls the range of these interactions.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figure

Reconstruction on trees and spin glass transition

Consider an information source generating a symbol at the root of a tree network whose links correspond to noisy communication channels, and broadcasting it through the network. We study the problem of reconstructing the transmitted symbol from the information received at the leaves. In the large system limit, reconstruction is possible when the channel noise is smaller than a threshold. We show that this threshold coincides with the dynamical (replica symmetry breaking) glass transition for an associated statistical physics problem. Motivated by this correspondence, we derive a variational principle which implies new rigorous bounds on the reconstruction threshold. Finally, we apply a standard numerical procedure used in statistical physics, to predict the reconstruction thresholds in various channels. In particular, we prove a bound on the reconstruction problem for the antiferromagnetic ``Potts'' channels, which implies, in the noiseless limit, new results on random proper colorings of infinite regular trees. This relation to the reconstruction problem also offers interesting perspective for putting on a clean mathematical basis the theory of glasses on random graphs.Comment: 34 pages, 16 eps figure

Partially asymmetric exclusion models with quenched disorder

We consider the one-dimensional partially asymmetric exclusion process with random hopping rates, in which a fraction of particles (or sites) have a preferential jumping direction against the global drift. In this case the accumulated distance traveled by the particles, x, scales with the time, t, as x ~ t^{1/z}, with a dynamical exponent z > 0. Using extreme value statistics and an asymptotically exact strong disorder renormalization group method we analytically calculate, z_{pt}, for particlewise (pt) disorder, which is argued to be related to the dynamical exponent for sitewise (st) disorder as z_{st}=z_{pt}/2. In the symmetric situation with zero mean drift the particle diffusion is ultra-slow, logarithmic in time.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Effect of a columnar defect on the shape of slow-combustion fronts

We report experimental results for the behavior of slow-combustion fronts in the presence of a columnar defect with excess or reduced driving, and compare them with those of mean-field theory. We also compare them with simulation results for an analogous problem of driven flow of particles with hard-core repulsion (ASEP) and a single defect bond with a different hopping probability. The difference in the shape of the front profiles for excess vs. reduced driving in the defect, clearly demonstrates the existence of a KPZ-type of nonlinear term in the effective evolution equation for the slow-combustion fronts. We also find that slow-combustion fronts display a faceted form for large enough excess driving, and that there is a corresponding increase then in the average front speed. This increase in the average front speed disappears at a non-zero excess driving in agreement with the simulated behavior of the ASEP model.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figure

Driven Lattice Gases with Quenched Disorder: Exact Results and Different Macroscopic Regimes

We study the effect of quenched spatial disorder on the steady states of driven systems of interacting particles. Two sorts of models are studied: disordered drop-push processes and their generalizations, and the disordered asymmetric simple exclusion process. We write down the exact steady-state measure, and consequently a number of physical quantities explicitly, for the drop-push dynamics in any dimensions for arbitrary disorder. We find that three qualitatively different regimes of behaviour are possible in 1-$d$ disordered driven systems. In the Vanishing-Current regime, the steady-state current approaches zero in the thermodynamic limit. A system with a non-zero current can either be in the Homogeneous regime, chracterized by a single macroscopic density, or the Segregated-Density regime, with macroscopic regions of different densities. We comment on certain important constraints to be taken care of in any field theory of disordered systems.Comment: RevTex, 17pages, 18 figures included using psfig.st

Two-Species Annihilation with Drift: A Model with Continuous Concentration-Decay Exponents

We propose a model for diffusion-limited annihilation of two species, $A+B\to A$ or $B$, where the motion of the particles is subject to a drift. For equal initial concentrations of the two species, the density follows a power-law decay for large times. However, the decay exponent varies continuously as a function of the probability of which particle, the hopping one or the target, survives in the reaction. These results suggest that diffusion-limited reactions subject to drift do not fall into a limited number of universality classes.Comment: 10 pages, tex, 3 figures, also available upon reques

Self Organization and a Dynamical Transition in Traffic Flow Models

A simple model that describes traffic flow in two dimensions is studied. A sharp {\it jamming transition } is found that separates between the low density dynamical phase in which all cars move at maximal speed and the high density jammed phase in which they are all stuck. Self organization effects in both phases are studied and discussed.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure

Dynamical Phase Transition in One Dimensional Traffic Flow Model with Blockage

Effects of a bottleneck in a linear trafficway is investigated using a simple cellular automaton model. Introducing a blockage site which transmit cars at some transmission probability into the rule-184 cellular automaton, we observe three different phases with increasing car concentration: Besides the free phase and the jam phase, which exist already in the pure rule-184 model, the mixed phase of these two appears at intermediate concentration with well-defined phase boundaries. This mixed phase, where cars pile up behind the blockage to form a jam region, is characterized by a constant flow. In the thermodynamic limit, we obtain the exact expressions for several characteristic quantities in terms of the car density and the transmission rate. These quantities depend strongly on the system size at the phase boundaries; We analyse these finite size effects based on the finite-size scaling.Comment: 14 pages, LaTeX 13 postscript figures available upon request,OUCMT-94-

Time-dependent correlation functions in a one-dimensional asymmetric exclusion process

We study a one-dimensional anisotropic exclusion process describing particles injected at the origin, moving to the right on a chain of $L$ sites and being removed at the (right) boundary. We construct the steady state and compute the density profile, exact expressions for all equal-time n-point density correlation functions and the time-dependent two-point function in the steady state as functions of the injection and absorption rates. We determine the phase diagram of the model and compare our results with predictions from dynamical scaling and discuss some conjectures for other exclusion models.Comment: LATEX-file, 32 pages, Weizmann preprint WIS/93/01/Jan-P