Non-equilibrium gelation transition in a kinetic lattice gas model

TL;DR

This paper investigates a lattice gas model with many-body interactions, revealing a gelation transition at low temperatures and suggesting it belongs to a class of non-equilibrium critical phenomena.

Contribution

It introduces a lattice gas model with many-body interactions that exhibits a gelation transition, linking it to non-equilibrium critical phenomena.

Findings

Model exhibits glassy behavior at low temperature

Identifies a gelation transition in the model

Suggests universality class of non-equilibrium critical phenomena

Abstract

We consider a lattice gas model which in addition to the canonical nearest neighbor pair interatomic interaction accounts for a many-body interaction inside atomic trios. Interactions of this kind arise in the coherent strained epitaxy and were recently used by us to describe some surface phenomena. With the use of the Monte Carlo simulation we show that in two dimensions the model at low temperature exhibits glassy behaviour, in particular, undergoes a gelation transition. We argue that this model may belong to the universality class of non-equilibrium critical phenomena which may comprise also some off-lattice structural glass transitions, provided such a class exists.