Issue |
Europhys. Lett.
Volume 70, Number 3, May 2005
|
|
---|---|---|
Page(s) | 299 - 305 | |
Section | General | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1209/epl/i2005-10006-6 | |
Published online | 06 April 2005 |
Will jams get worse when slow cars move over?
Center for Stochastic Processes in Science and Engineering and Department of Physics, Virginia Tech - Blacksburg, VA 24061-0435, USA
Received:
31
January
2005
Accepted:
15
March
2005
Motivated by an analogy with traffic, we simulate two species of
particles (“vehicles”), moving stochastically in opposite
directions on a two-lane ring road. Each species prefers one lane
over the other, controlled by a parameter such
that
corresponds to random lane choice and
to perfect
“laning”. We find that the system displays one large cluster
(“jam”) whose size increases with b, contrary to intuition.
Even more remarkably, the lane “charge” (a measure for the
number of particles in their preferred lane) exhibits a region of
negative response: even though vehicles experience a stronger
preference for the “right” lane, more of them find themselves in
the “wrong” one! For b very close to 1, a sharp transition
restores a homogeneous state. Various characteristics of the
system are computed analytically, in good agreement with
simulation data.
PACS: 05.70.Ln – Nonequilibrium and irreversible thermodynamics / 64.60.Cn – Order-disorder transformations; statistical mechanics of model systems / 89.75.Kd – Patterns
© EDP Sciences, 2005
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