Noise-and delay-induced phase transitions of the dimer-monomer surface reaction model

The effects of noise and time-delayed feedback in the dimer-monomer (DM) surface reaction model are investigated. Applying small delay approximation, we construct a stochastic delayed differential equation and its Fokker-Planck equation to describe the state evolution of the DM reaction model. We show that the noise can only induce first-order irreversible phase transition (IPT) characteristic of the DM model, however the combination of the noise and time-delayed feedback can simultaneously induce first-and second-order IPT characteristics of the DM model. Therefore, it is shown that the well-known first- and second-order IPT characteristics of the DM model may be viewed as noise-and delay-induced phase transitions. (C) 2012 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.