Behavior dominated by slow particles in a disordered asymmetric exclusion process

Abstract

We study the large space and time scale behavior of a totally asymmetric, nearest-neighbor exclusion process in one dimension with random jump rates attached to the particles. When slow particles are sufficiently rare the system has a phase transition. At low densities there are no equilibrium distributions, and on the hydrodynamic scale the initial profile is transported rigidly. We elaborate this situation further by finding the correct order of the correction from the hydrodynamic limit, together with distributional bounds averaged over the disorder. We consider two settings, a macroscopically constant low density profile and the outflow from a large jam.