title: Nonequilibrium phase transition in a model for the propagation of innovations among economic agents.
abstract: We characterize the different morphological phases that occur in a simple one-dimensional model of propagation of innovations among economic agents [X. Guardiola et al., Phys. Rev E 66, 026121 (2002)]. We show that the model can be regarded as a nonequilibrium surface growth model. This allows us to demonstrate the presence of a continuous roughening transition between a flat (system size independent fluctuations) and a rough phase (system size dependent fluctuations). Finite-size scaling studies at the transition strongly suggest that the dynamic critical transition does not belong to directed percolation and, in fact, critical exponents do not seem to fit in any of the known universality classes of nonequilibrium phase transitions. Finally, we present an explanation for the occurrence of the roughening transition and argue that avalanche driven dynamics is responsible for the novel critical behavior.
authors.affiliation: Departament de Física Fonamental, Universitat de Barcelona, Avenida Diagonal 647, E-08028 Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Mateu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Llas
authors.forename: Pablo M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Gleiser
authors.forename: Juan M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: López
authors.forename: Albert
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Díaz-Guilera