Emergence of logarithmic-periodic oscillations in contact process with topological disorder.

Abstract

We present a model of contact process on Domany-Kinzel cellular automata with a geometrical disorder. In the 1D model, each site is connected to two nearest neighbors which are either on the left or the right. The system is always attracted to an absorbing state with algebraic decay of average density with a continuously varying complex exponent. The log-periodic oscillations are imposed over and above the usual power law and are clearly evident as p→1. This effect is purely due to an underlying topology because all sites have the same infection probability p and there is no disorder in the infection rate. An extension of this model to two and three dimensions leads to similar results. This may be a common feature in systems where quenched disorder leads to effective fragmentation of the lattice.