RANDOM AND COOPERATIVE SEQUENTIAL ADSORPTION

Irreversible random sequential adsorption (RSA) on lattices, and conti nuum ''car parking'' analogues, have long received attention as models for reactions on polymer chains, chemisorption on single-crystal surf aces, adsorption in colloidal systems, and solid state transformations . Cooperative generalizations of these models (CSA) are sometimes more appropriate, and can exhibit richer kinetics and spatial structure, e .g., autocatalysis and clustering. The distribution of filled or trans formed sites in RSA and CSA is not described by an equilibrium Gibbs m easure. This is the case even for the saturation ''jammed'' state of m odels where the lattice or space cannot fill completely. However exact analysis is often possible in one dimension, and a variety of powerfu l analytic methods have been developed for higher dimensional models. Here we review the detailed understanding of asymptotic kinetics, spat ial correlations, percolative structure, etc., which is emerging for t hese far-from-equilibrium processes.