An analytic model for a cooperative ballistic deposition in one dimension

Abstract

We formulate a model for a cooperative ballistic deposition (CBD) process whereby the incoming particles are correlated with the ones already adsorbed via attractive force. The strength of the correlation is controlled by a tunable parameter $a$ that interpolates the classical car parking problem at $a=0$, the ballistic deposition at $a=1$ and the CBD model at $a>1$. The effects of the correlation in the CBD model are as follows. The jamming coverage $q(a)$ increases with the strength of attraction $a$ due to an ever increasing tendency of cluster formation. The system almost reaches the closest packing structure as $a\to \infty$ but never forms a percolating cluster which is typical to 1D system. In the large $a$ regime, the mean cluster size $k$ increases as $a^{1/2}$. Furthermore, the asymptotic approach towards the closest packing is purely algebraic both with $a$ as $q(\infty )-q(a)\sim a^{-1/2}$ and with $k$ as $q(\infty )-q(k)\sim k^{-1}$ where $q(\infty )\simeq 1$.

9 pages (in Revtex4), 9 eps figures; Submitted to publication