IRREVERSIBLE ADSORPTION OF PARTICLES AFTER DIFFUSING IN A GRAVITATIONAL-FIELD

In this paper we analyze the influence of transport mechanisms (diffus ion and sedimentation) on the structure of monolayers of particles irr eversibly adsorbed on a line. We focus our attention on the dependence of the radial distribution function g(r) and the saturation coverage theta(infinity) on the gravitational Peclet number N-g. First, we stud y the probability density of adsorption onto an available interval usi ng approximate solutions of the transport equation and computer simula tions. Combining our results with an approximate general formalism, we can obtain values of theta(infinity) and the gap density, which agree with our simulations. We also show that, for large gravity, the cover age theta(infinity) approaches the ballistic limit following a power l aw in N-g that is independent of the number of dimensions, as has been observed in simulations R. Ezzeddine, P. Schaaf, J. C. Voegel, and B. Senger, Phys. Rev. E 51, 6286 (1995).