Systems with superabsorbing states

Abstract

We report on some extensive analysis of a recently proposed model [A. Lipowski Phys. Rev. E {\bf 60}, 6255 (1999)] with infinitely many absorbing states. By performing extensive Monte Carlo simulations we have determined critical exponents and show strong evidence that this model is not in the directed percolation universality class. The conjecture that this two-dimensional model exhibits a dimensional reduction (behaving as one-dimensional directed percolation) is firmly disproven. The reason for the model not exhibiting standard directed percolation scaling behavior is traced back to the existence of what we call {\it superabsorbing sites}, i.e. absorbing sites that cannot be directly activated by the presence of neighboring activity in one or more than one directions. Supporting this claim we present two strong evidences: (i) in one dimension, where superabsorbing sites do not appear at the critical point, the system behaves as directed percolation, and (ii) in a modified two-dimensional variation of the model, defined on a honeycomb lattice, for which superabsorbing sites are very rarely observed, directed percolation behavior is recovered. Finally, a parallel updating version of the model exhibiting a nonequilibrium first-order transition is also reported.