This paper has studied spontaneous symmetry breaking (SSB) phenomenon in two types of two-channel asymmetric simple exclusion processes (ASEPs). One common feature of the two systems is that interactions for each species of particle happen at only one site, and the system reduces to two independent ASEPs when interaction vanishes. It is shown that with the weakening of interaction, the SSB is suppressed. More interestingly, the SSB disappears before the interaction is eliminated. Our work thus indicates that local interaction has to be strong enough to produce SSB. The mean-field analysis has been carried out, and the results are consistent with the simulation ones.

• Received 22 July 2011

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.85.041132