A monomer-dimer reaction lattice model with lateral repulsion among the same
species is studied using a mean-field analysis and Monte Carlo simulations. For
weak repulsions, the model exhibits a first-order irreversible phase transition
between two absorbing states saturated by each different species. Increasing
the repulsion, a reactive stationary state appears in addition to the saturated
states. The irreversible phase transitions from the reactive phase to any of
the saturated states are continuous and belong to the directed percolation
universality class. However, a different critical behavior is found at the
point where the directed percolation phase boundaries meet. The values of the
critical exponents calculated at the bicritical point are in good agreement
with the exponents corresponding to the parity-conserving universality class.
Since the adsorption-reaction processes does not lead to a non-trivial local
parity-conserving dynamics, this result confirms that the twofold symmetry
between absorbing states plays a relevant role in determining the universality
class. The value of the exponent δ2, which characterizes the
fluctuations of an interface at the bicritical point, supports the
Bassler-Brown's conjecture which states that this is a new exponent in the
parity-conserving universality class.Comment: 19 pages, 22 figures, to be published in Phys. Rev