English

Continuously-variable survival exponent for random walks with movable partial reflectors

Statistical Mechanics 2009-11-07 v1

Abstract

We study a one-dimensional lattice random walk with an absorbing boundary at the origin and a movable partial reflector. On encountering the reflector, at site x, the walker is reflected (with probability r) to x-1 and the reflector is simultaneously pushed to x+1. Iteration of the transition matrix, and asymptotic analysis of the probability generating function show that the critical exponent delta governing the survival probability varies continuously between 1/2 and 1 as r varies between 0 and 1. Our study suggests a mechanism for nonuniversal kinetic critical behavior, observed in models with an infinite number of absorbing configurations.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0104470,
  title  = {Continuously-variable survival exponent for random walks with movable partial reflectors},
  author = {Ronald Dickman and Daniel ben-Avraham},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0104470},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

5 pages, 3 figures