Absorbing state phase transitions are an important class of stochastic systems which are of fundamental importance for the field on nonequilibrium and statistical physics, while being directly or conceptually relevant to a variety of natural processes. The diffusive epidemic process (DEP) is a paradigmatic model in this class, introduced as a minimal model for the stochastic spreading of an epidemic. Unlike directional percolation, the process involves two different types of individuals/particles (healthy and diseased individuals) that diffuse with different diffusion constants and where the total number of individuals is conserved. Interestingly, it has also been discussed as a minimal model for the emergence of protein pattern in cell polarity systems. more

Time efficiency of self-assembly is crucial for many biological processes. Moreover, with the advances of nanotechnology, time efficiency in artificial self-assembly becomes ever more important. While structural determinants and the final assembly yield are increasingly well understood, kinetic aspects concerning the time efficiency, however, remain much more elusive. more