Diffusion-annihilation dynamics in one spatial dimension

We discuss a reaction-diffusion model in one dimension subjected to an external driving force. Each lattice site may be occupied by at most one particle. The particles hop with rates (1+/-eta)/2 to the right or left nearest neighbor site if it is vacant, and annihilate with rate one if it is occupied. The representation of an uncorrelated random initial state in terms of free fermions allows the calculation of multiple time-dependent higher order correlation functions of the local density. We outline the procedure using a field theoretic approach. We also compute the long time behavior of the density profile if the initial density profile is a step function. The fermion representation of the step function state also allows the calculation of multiple time-dependent correlation functions. Experimental applications of these results are pointed out. (C) 1996 American Institute of Physics.