ON THE GROWTH OF NONEQUILIBRIUM SPATIAL CORRELATIONS IN A MODEL REACTION-DIFFUSION SYSTEM

The mesoscopic description of a system with chemical reactions predict s that if the detailed balance condition is not satisfied then the non equilibrium spatial correlations between concentrations of reactants m ay appear. The present work is concerned with the dynamics of their gr owth. We assume that the system is homogeneous at the beginning and st udy how fast the nonequilibrium correlations develop. The theory based on the master equation is compared with molecular dynamics simulation s performed for a model system of ''reacting'' hard spheres. The quali tative characteristics of the growth of the spatial correlations, pred icted by the theory based on a master equation, are confirmed in our s imulations. However, this theory fails to give the correct quantitativ e description of this process.