Dual phase separation in a two-dimensional driven diffusive system

This paper studies a bidirectional multilane driven diffusive system with two type of particles. Phase separation phenomenon emerges in the system. In particular, a novel dual phase separation could be observed under certain circumstance. Mean field analysis has been carried out, which indicates that occurrence of phase separation might be related to minimization of system current. Specifically, the occurrence of dual phase separation is due to (i) existence of a local minimum in the fundamental diagram of flow rate J versus density ρ and (ii) ∂J/∂ρ|ρ=1<0. Our findings offer sights to understand deeply dynamic features of multilane transportation system, especially phase separation of nonequilibrium state systems.