Surface Critical Behavior in Systems with Absorbing States

TL;DR

This paper develops a scaling theory for surface critical behavior in non-equilibrium systems with absorbing states, identifying two universality classes and their associated exponents.

Contribution

It introduces a generalized scaling framework with two independent surface exponents and applies it to a model with two absorbing states, revealing distinct universality classes.

Findings

Two surface universality classes identified: inactive and reflective walls.

Surface exponents are closely connected across classes.

Generalized hyperscaling relations are satisfied.

Abstract

We present a general scaling theory for the surface critical behavior of non-equilibrium systems with phase transitions into absorbing states. The theory allows for two independent surface exponents which satisfy generalized hyperscaling relations. As an application we study a generalized version of directed percolation with two absorbing states. We find two distinct surface universality classes associated with inactive and reflective walls. Our results indicate that the exponents associated with these two surface universality classes are closely connected.