Phase Transitions in a Driven Lattice Gas with Anisotropic Interactions

The Ising lattice gas, with its well known equilibrium properties, displays a number of surprising phenomena when driven into nonequilibrium steady states. We study such a model with anisotropic interparticle interactions (J_||J), using both Monte Carlo simulations and high temperature series techniques. Under saturation drive, the shift in the transition temperature can be both positive and negative, depending on the ratio J_||/J! For finite drives, both first- and second-order transitions are observed. Some aspects of the phase diagram can be predicted by investigating the two-point correlation function at the first nontrivial order of a high-temperature series expansion.