Critical exponents for branching annihilating random walks with an even number of offspring

Abstract

Recently, Takayasu and Tretyakov [Phys. Rev. Lett. 68, 3060 (1992)] studied branching annihilating random walks (BAWs) with n=1--5 offspring. These models exhibit a continuous phase transition to an absorbing state. For odd n the models belong to the universality class of directed percolation. For even n the particle number is conserved modulo 2 and the critical behavior is not compatible with directed percolation. In this article I study the BAW with n=4 using time-dependent simulations and finite-size scaling, obtaining precise estimates for various critical exponents. The results are consistent with the conjecture: \ensuremath{\beta}/${\ensuremath{\nu}}_{\mathrm{\ensuremath{\perp}}}$=1/2, ${\ensuremath{\nu}}_{\mathrm{\ensuremath{\parallel}}}$/${\ensuremath{\nu}}_{\mathrm{\ensuremath{\perp}}}$=7/4, \ensuremath{\gamma}=0, \ensuremath{\delta}=2/7, \ensuremath{\eta}=0, and ${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\delta}}}_{\mathit{h}}$=9/2. These critical exponents characterize, respectively, the dependence of the order parameter (\ensuremath{\beta}/${\ensuremath{\nu}}_{\mathrm{\ensuremath{\perp}}}$) and relaxation time (${\ensuremath{\nu}}_{\mathrm{\ensuremath{\parallel}}}$/${\ensuremath{\nu}}_{\mathrm{\ensuremath{\perp}}}$) on system size, the growth of fluctuations (\ensuremath{\gamma}) close to the critical point, the long-time behavior of the probability of survival (\ensuremath{\delta}) and average number of particles (\ensuremath{\eta}) when starting at time zero with just two particles, and finally the decay of the order parameter (${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\delta}}}_{\mathit{h}}$) at the critical point in the presence of an external source.