The phase transition of the diffusive pair contact process revisited

The restricted diffusive pair contact process 2A→3A, 2A→∅ (PCPD) and the classification of its critical behavior continues to be a challenging open problem of non-equilibrium statistical mechanics. Recently, Kockelkoren and Chaté [Absorbing phase transition of branching-annihilating random walks, Phys. Rev. Lett. 90 (2003) 125701] suggested that the PCPD in one spatial dimension represents a genuine universality class of non-equilibrium phase transitions which differs from previously known classes. To this end they introduced an efficient lattice model in which the number of particles per site is unrestricted. In numerical simulations this model displayed clean power laws, indicating ordinary critical behavior associated with certain non-trivial critical exponents. In the present work, however, we arrive at a different conclusion. Increasing the numerical effort, we find a slow drift of the effective exponents which is of the same type as observed in previously studied fermionic realizations. Analyzing this drift we discuss the possibility that the asymptotic critical behavior of the PCPD may be governed by an ordinary directed percolation fixed point.