Driven Widom-Rowlinson lattice gas

Abstract

In the Widom-Rowlinson lattice gas, two particle species (A, B) diffuse freely via particle-hole exchange, subject to both on-site exclusion and prohibition of A-B nearest-neighbor pairs. As an athermal system, the overall densities are the only control parameters. As the densities increase, an entropically driven phase transition occurs, leading to ordered states with A- and B-rich domains separated by hole-rich interfaces. Using Monte Carlo simulations, we analyze the effect of imposing a drive on this system, biasing particle moves along one direction. Our study parallels that for a driven Ising lattice gas -- the Katz-Lebowitz-Spohn (KLS) model, which displays atypical collective behavior, e.g., structure factors with discontinuity singularities and ordered states with domains only parallel to the drive. Here, other novel features emerge, including structure factors with kink singularities (best fitted to |q|), maxima at non-vanishing wavevector values, oscillating correlation functions, and ordering into multiple striped domains perpendicular to the drive, with a preferred wavelength depending on density and drive intensity. Moreover, the (hole-rich) interfaces between the domains are statistically rough (whether driven or not), in sharp contrast with those in the KLS model, in which the drive suppresses interfacial roughness. Defining a novel order parameter (to account for the emergence of multistripe states), we map out the phase diagram in the density-drive plane and present preliminary evidence for a critical phase in this driven lattice gas.