Monte Carlo studies of a driven lattice gas. I. Growth and asymmetry during phase segregation

Abstract

We investigate the effects of an external field on the kinetics of phase segregation in systems with conservative diffusive dynamics. We find that, in contrast to the situation without a field, there are now qualitative differences between the results of microscopic simulations of a 2D lattice model with biased Kawasaki exchanges and those obtained from various modifications of the macroscopic Cahn-Hilliard equation (mCH). While both microscopic simulations and numerical solutions of MCH yield triangular domains, we find that in the former the triangles mainly point opposite to the field, while in the latter and in new calculations with the mCH they point along the field. On the other hand, the rate of growth of the clusters and their final state, bands parallel to the field, are similar. This issue and the question of the mesoscopic behavior of cell dynamical systems is discussed but not resolved.