Critical behavior of the pair contact process

Abstract

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.