Damage Spreading in a Driven Lattice Gas Model

Abstract: We studied damage spreading in a Driven Lattice Gas (DLG) model as a function of the temperature $T$, the magnitude of the external driving field $E$, and the lattice size. The DLG model undergoes an order-disorder second-order phase transition at the critical temperature $T_c(E)$, such that the ordered phase is characterized by high-density strips running along the direction of the applied field; while in the disordered phase one has a lattice-gas-like behaviour. It is found that the damage always spreads for all the investigated temperatures and reaches a saturation value $D_{sat}$ that depends only on $T$. $D_{sat}$ increases for $T<T_c(E=\infty)$, decreases for $T>T_c(E=\infty)$ and is free of finite-size effects. This behaviour can be explained as due to the existence of interfaces between the high-density strips and the lattice-gas-like phase whose roughness depends on $T$. Also, we investigated damage spreading for a range of finite fields as a function of $T$, finding a behaviour similar to that of the case with $E=\infty$.