Phase ordering dynamics of reconstituting particles.

Abstract

We consider the large-time dynamics of one-dimensional processes involving adsorption and desorption of extended hard-core particles (dimers, trimers, ..., k-mers), while interacting through their constituent monomers. Desorption can occur whether or not these latter adsorbed together, which leads to reconstitution of k-mers and the appearance of sectors of motion with nonlocal conservation laws for k≥3. Dynamic exponents of the sector including the empty chain are evaluated by finite-size scaling analyses of the relaxation times embodied in the spectral gaps of evolution operators. For attractive interactions it is found that in the low-temperature limit such time scales converge to those of the Glauber dynamics, thus suggesting a diffusive universality class for k≥2. This is also tested by simulated quenches down to T=0, where a common scaling function emerges. By contrast, under repulsive interactions the low-temperature dynamics is characterized by metastable states which decay subdiffusively to a highly degenerate and partially jammed phase.