Absence of phase coexistence in disordered exclusion processes with bypassing

Abstract

Adding quenched disorder to the one-dimensional asymmetric exclusion process is known to always induce phase separation. To test the robustness of this result, we introduce two modifications of the process that allow particles to bypass defect sites. In the first case, particles are allowed to jump l sites ahead with the probability p_l ~ l^-(1+sigma), where sigma>1. By using Monte Carlo simulations and the mean-field approach, we show that phase coexistence may be absent up to enormously large system sizes, e.g. lnL~50, but is present in the thermodynamic limit, as in the short-range case. In the second case, we consider the exclusion process on a quadratic lattice with symmetric and totally asymmetric hopping perpendicular to and along the direction of driving, respectively. We show that in an anisotropic limit of this model a regime may be found where phase coexistence is absent.