Existence of spontaneous symmetry breaking in two-lane totally asymmetric simple exclusion processes with an intersection*

Abstract

We study two-lane totally asymmetric simple exclusion processes (TASEPs) with an intersection. Monte Carlo simulations show that only symmetric phases exist in the system. To verify the existence of asymmetric phases, we carry out a cluster mean-field analysis. Analytical results show that the densities of the two upstream segments of the intersection site are always equal, which indicates that the system is not in asymmetric phases. It demonstrates that the spontaneous symmetry breaking does not exist in the system. The density profiles and the boundaries of the symmetric phases are also investigated. We find that the cluster mean-field analysis shows better agreement with simulations than the simple mean-field analysis where the correlation of sites is ignored.