THE MARKOFF AUTOMATON: A NEW ALGORITHM FOR SIMULATING THE TIME-EVOLUTION OF LARGE STOCHASTIC DYNAMIC SYSTEMS

Abstract

We describe a new algorithm for simulating complex Markoff processes. We have used a reaction-cell method in order to simulate arbitrary reactions. It can be used for any kind of RDS on arbitrary topologies, including fractal dimensions or configurations not being related to any spatial geometry. The events within a single cell are managed by an event handler which has been implemented independently of the system studied. The method is exact on the Markoff level including the correct treatment of finite numbers of molecules. To demonstrate its properties, we apply it on a very simple reaction-diffusion-systems (RDS). The chemical equations [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] in 1 to 4 dimensions serve as models for systems whose dynamics on an intermediate time scale are governed by fluctuations. We compare our results to the analytic approach by the scaling ansatz. The simulations confirm the exponents of the A+B system within statistical errors, including the logarithmic corrections in the dimension d=2. The method is able to simulate the crossover from the reaction to diffusion limited regime, which is defined be a crossover time depending on the system size.