In this thesis, several stochastic models are investigated, which are subjected to irreversible dynamics. Motivation for the presented work stems, on the one hand, from particular physical systems under consideration, which are modeled by the studied stochastic processes. Besides that, the models discussed in this thesis are, on the other hand, generally interesting from the point of view of statistical physics, since they describe systems far from thermodynamic equilibrium. Interesting properties to be encountered are, e.g., dynamical scaling behavior or continuous phase transitions. The first issue to be addressed, is the investigation of irreversibly aggregating systems, where the main emphasis is laid on aggregation of monopolarly charged clusters suspended in a fluid. For this purpose, rate equations are analyzed and Brownian dynamics simulations are performed. It is shown that the system crosses over from power-law cluster growth to sub-logarithmic cluster growth. Asymptotically, the cluster size distribution evolves towards a universal scaling form, which implies a 'self-focussing' of the size distribution. Another emphasis of this thesis is the investigation of nonequilibrium critical phenomena, in particular, the study of phase transitions into absorbing states (states that may be reached irreversibly). To this end, the continuous nonequilibrium phase transition of directed percolation, which serves as a paradigm for absorbing-state phase transitions, is analyzed by a novel approach. Despite the lack of a partition function for directed percolation, this novel approach follows the ideas of Yang-Lee theory of equilibrium statistical mechanics, by investigating the complex roots of the survival probability. Stochastic models such as directed percolation mimic spreading processes, e.g., the spreading of an infectious disease. The effect of long-time memory, which is not included in directed percolation and which corresponds to immunization in epidemic spreading, is investigated through an appropriate model. This model includes dynamical percolation (perfect immunization) as a special case, as well as directed percolation (no immunization). The critical behavior of this model is studied by means of Monte Carlo simulations, in particular for weak immunization. A further generalization is investigated, which allows spontaneous mutations and different species of spreading agents (pathogens). Restricting the analysis to perfect immunization and two spatial dimensions, it is shown by Monte Carlo simulations, that immunization leads to a crossover from dynamical to directed percolation. Other properties of this model are discussed in detail.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:DUETT/oai:DUETT:duett-01282005-115619 |
| Date | 02 February 2005 |
| Creators | Dammer, Stephan Markus |
| Contributors | Prof. Dr. K. Usadel, Prof. Dr. H. Hinrichsen |
| Publisher | Gerhard-Mercator-Universitaet Duisburg |
| Source Sets | Dissertations and other Documents of the Gerhard-Mercator-University Duisburg |
| Language | German |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/octet-stream, application/pdf, text/html |
| Source | http://www.ub.uni-duisburg.de/ETD-db/theses/available/duett-01282005-115619/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. Hiermit erteile ich der Universitaet Duisburg das nicht-ausschliessliche Recht unter den unten angegebenen Bedingungen, meine Dissertation, Staatsexamens- oder Diplomarbeit, meinen Forschungs- oder Projektbericht zu veroeffentlichen und zu archivieren. Ich behalte das Urheberrecht und das Recht das Dokument zu veroeffentlichen und in anderen Arbeiten weiterzuverwenden. |
Page generated in 0.0022 seconds