Shock profiles for the asymmetric simple exclusion process in one dimension

The asymmetric simple exclusion process (ASEP) on a one-dimensional lattice is a system of particles which jump at ratesp and 1-p (herep > 1/2) to adjacent empty sites on their right and left respectively. The system is described on suitable macroscopic spatial and temporal scales by the inviscid Burgers’ equation; the latter has shock solutions with a discontinuous jump from left density ρ- to right density ρ+, ρ-< ρ +, which travel with velocity (2p−1 )(1−ρ₊−p ₋). In the microscopic system we may track the shock position by introducing a second class particle, which is attracted to and travels with the shock. In this paper we obtain the time-invariant measure for this shock solution in the ASEP, as seen from such a particle. The mean density at lattice siten, measured from this particle, approachesp _± at an exponential rate asn→ ±∞, witha characteristic length which becomes independent ofp when . For a special value of the asymmetry, given byp/(1−p)=p ₊(1−p ₋)/p ₋(1−p ₊), the measure is Bernoulli, with densityρ ₋ on the left andp ₊ on the right. In the weakly asymmetric limit, 2p−1 → 0, the microscopic width of the shock diverges as (2p+1)^-1. The stationary measure is then essentially a superposition of Bernoulli measures, corresponding to a convolution of a density profile described by the viscous Burgers equation with a well-defined distribution for the location of the second class particle.