Generalized Green Functions and Current Correlations in the TASEP

We study correlation functions of the totally asymmetric simple exclusion process (TASEP) in discrete time with backward sequential update. We prove a determinantal formula for the generalized Green function which describes transitions between positions of particles at different individual time moments. In particular, the generalized Green function defines a probability measure at staircase lines on the space-time plane. The marginals of this measure are the TASEP correlation functions in the space-time region not covered by the standard Green function approach. As an example, we calculate the current correlation function that is the joint probability distribution of times taken by selected particles to travel given distance. An asymptotic analysis shows that current fluctuations converge to the Airy₂ process.     

Bethe Ansatz Solution of Discrete Time Stochastic Processes with Fully Parallel Update

We present the Bethe ansatz solution for the discrete time zero range and asymmetric exclusion processes with fully parallel dynamics. The model depends on two parameters: p, the probability of single particle hopping, and q, the deformation parameter, which in the general case, |q| < 1, is responsible for long range interaction between particles. The particular case q = 0 corresponds to the Nagel-Schreckenberg traffic model with v _max = 1. As a result, we obtain the largest eigenvalue of the equation for the generating function of the distance travelled by particles. For the case q = 0 the result is obtained for arbitrary size of the lattice and number of particles. In the general case we study the model in the scaling limit and obtain the universal form specific for the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang universality class. We describe the phase transition occurring in the limit p→ 1 when q < 0.     

Scale Invariance of the PNG Droplet and the Airy Process

We establish that the static height fluctuations of a particular growth model, the PNG droplet, converges upon proper rescaling to a limit process, which we call the Airy process A(y). The Airy process is stationary, it has continuous sample paths, its single time (fixed y) distribution is the Tracy–Widom distribution of the largest eigenvalue of a GUE random matrix, and the Airy process has a slow decay of correlations as y ^–2. Roughly the Airy process describes the last line of Dyson's Brownian motion model for random matrices. Our construction uses a multi-layer version of the PNG model, which can be analyzed through fermionic techniques. Specializing our result to a fixed value of y, one reobtains the celebrated result of Baik, Deift, and Johansson on the length of the longest increasing subsequence of a random permutation.     

Two Speed TASEP

We consider the TASEP on ? with two blocks of particles having different jump rates. We study the large time behavior of particles’ positions. It depends both on the jump rates and the region we focus on, and we determine the complete process diagram. In particular, we discover a new transition process in the region where the influence of the random and deterministic parts of the initial condition interact. Slow particles may create a shock, where the particle density is discontinuous and the distribution of a particle’s position is asymptotically singular. We determine the diffusion coefficient of the shock without using second class particles. We also analyze the case where particles are effectively blocked by a wall moving with speed equal to their intrinsic jump rate.     

Instability transitions and ensemble equivalence in diffusive flow

We investigate the critical behavior of one-dimensional (1D) stochastic flow with competing nonlocal and local hopping events, in context of the totally asymmetric simple exclusion process (TASEP) with a defect site in a 1D closed chain. The defect site can effectively generate various boundary conditions, controlling the total number of particles in the system. Both open and periodic-like setups exhibit dynamic instability transitions from a populated finite density phase to an empty road (ER) phase as the nonlocal hopping rate increases. In the stationary populated phase, strong clustering promoted by nonlocal skids drives such transitions and determines their scaling properties. By static and dynamic simulations, we locate such transition points, and discuss their nature and scaling properties. In the open TASEP variant, we numerically establish that the instability transition into the ER phase is second order in the regime where the entry point reservoir controls the current, while it is first order in the regime where the bulk controls the current. Since it is well known that such transitions are absent in the periodic TASEP variant, we compare our results in the open setup with those in the periodic-like setup, and discuss the issue of the ensemble equivalence. Finally, the same discussion is extended to the symmetric cases.      

Fluctuation Properties of the TASEP with Periodic Initial Configuration

We consider the joint distributions of particle positions for the continuous time totally asymmetric simple exclusion process (TASEP). They are expressed as Fredholm determinants with a kernel defining a signed determinantal point process. We then consider certain periodic initial conditions and determine the kernel in the scaling limit. This result has been announced first in a letter by one of us (Sasamoto in J. Phys. A 38:L549–L556, 2005) and here we provide a self-contained derivation. Connections to last passage directed percolation and random matrices are also briefly discussed.     

Current Distribution and Random Matrix Ensembles for an Integrable Asymmetric Fragmentation Process

We calculate the time-evolution of a discrete-time fragmentation process in which clusters of particles break up and reassemble and move stochastically with size-dependent rates. In the continuous-time limit the process turns into the totally asymmetric simple exclusion process (only pieces of size 1 break off a given cluster). We express the exact solution of the master equation for the process in terms of a determinant which can be derived using the Bethe ansatz. From this determinant we compute the distribution of the current across an arbitrary bond which after appropriate scaling is given by the distribution of the largest eigenvalue of the Gaussian unitary ensemble of random matrices. This result confirms universality of the scaling form of the current distribution in the KPZ universality class and suggests that there is a link between integrable particle systems and random matrix ensembles.     

Relaxation Times in the ASEP Model Using a DMRG Method

We compute the largest relaxation times for the totally asymmetric exclusion process (TASEP) with open boundary conditions with a DMRG method. This allows us to reach much larger system sizes than in previous numerical studies. We are then able to show that the phenomenological theory of the domain wall indeed predicts correctly the largest relaxation time for large systems. Besides, we can obtain results even when the domain wall approach breaks down, and show that the KPZ dynamical exponent z=3/2 is recovered in the whole maximal current phase.     

Equilibrium time correlation functions in the low-density limit

We consider a system of hard spheres in thermal equilibrium. Using Lanford's result about the convergence of the solutions of the BBGKY hierarchy to the solutions of the Boltzmann hierarchy, we show that in the low-density limit (Boltzmann-Grad limit): (i) the total time correlation function is governed by the linearized Boltzmann equation (proved to be valid for short times), (ii) the self time correlation function, equivalently the distribution of a tagged particle in an equilibrium fluid, is governed by the Rayleigh-Boltzmann equation (proved to be valid for all times). In the latter case the fluid (not including the tagged particle) is to zeroth order in thermal equilibrium and to first order its distribution is governed by a combination of the Rayleigh-Boltzmann equation and the linearized Boltzmann equation (proved to be valid for short times).Supported in part by NSF Grant PHY 78-22302.     

An exclusion process for modelling fungal hyphal growth

A simple model for mass transport within a growing fungal filament is reviewed. Inspired by the role of microtubule-transported vesicles, we embody the dynamics of mass along a quasi-one-dimensional hypha with mutually excluding particles hopping on a growing one-dimensional lattice. The model is a generalisation of the totally asymmetric simple exclusion process (TASEP) to a dynamically extending lattice. We discuss mean-field and improved mean-field equations and present a phase diagram of the model's steady-state behaviour which generalises that of the TASEP. In particular we identify a region in which a shock in the density travels forward more slowly than the tip of the lattice and thus moves away from both the boundaries.