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The European Physical Journal B
ISSN: 1434-6028 (printed version)
ISSN: 1434-6036 (electronic version)
Abstract Volume 5 Issue 3 (1998) pp 793-800
Metastable states in cellular automata for traffic flow
R. Barlovic (1), L. Santen (2), A. Schadschneider (2) (a), M. Schreckenberg (1)
(1) Theoretische Physik/FB 10, Gerhard-Mercator-Universität Duisburg, 47048 Duisburg, Germany
(2) Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität zu Köln, 50937 Köln, Germany
Received: 26 March 1998 / Accepted: 17 April 1998
Abstract: Measurements on real traffic have revealed the existence of metastable states with very high flow. Such states have not been observed in the Nagel-Schreckenberg (NaSch) model which is the basic cellular automaton for the description of traffic. Here we propose a simple generalization of the NaSch model by introducing a velocity-dependent randomization. We investigate a special case which belongs to the so-called slow-to-start rules. It is shown that this model exhibits metastable states, thus sheding some light on the prerequisites for the occurance of hysteresis effects in the flow-density relation.
PACS. 02.50.Ey Stochastic Processes [:AND:] 05.60.+w Transport processes: theory - 89.40.+k Transportation
(a) email: as@thp.uni-koeln.de
Article in PDF format (545 KB)
Online publication: October 26, 1998
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