Kinetic Phase Transitions in Catalytic Reaction Models

We review and augment recent developments in the understanding of microscopic lattice gas models for irreversible surface reactions where diffusion does not play a dominant role. Monomer-monomer reactions exhibit domain coarsening much slower than equilibrium Lifschitz-Cahn-Allen coarsening and instead reflect Voter model behavior. The monomer-dimer reaction is of particular interest as a model for CO oxidation. We provide a sophisticated characterization of the associated first- and second-order kinetic phase transitions (corresponding to poisoning) via \u27epidemic analyses . Here one considers the evolution of reaction starting from an empty patch embedded on an otherwise poisoned surface