Universal fragmentation in annihilation reactions with constrained kinetics

Journal article, 2024

In reaction-diffusion models of annihilation reactions in low dimensions, single-particle dynamics provides a bottleneck for reactions, leading to an anomalously slow approach to the empty state. Here, we construct a reaction model with a reciprocal bottleneck of reactions on particle dynamics in which single-particle motion conserves the center of mass. We show that such a constrained reaction-diffusion dynamics does not approach an empty state but freezes at late times in a state with fragmented particle clusters. The late-time dynamics and final density are universal, and we provide exact results for the final density in the large-reaction rate limit. Thus, our setup constitutes a minimal model for the fragmentation of a one-dimensional lattice into independent particle clusters. We suggest that the universal reaction dynamics could be observable in experiments with cold atoms or in the Auger recombination of exciton gases.