Eur. Phys. J. B (2013) 86: 403
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2013-40509-1

Regular Article

Percolation of polyatomic species on a simple cubic lattice

¹ Universidad Tecnológica Nacional, Facultad Regional San Rafael, Gral J.J. De Urquiza 340, C.P. M5602GCH, San Rafael, Mendoza, Argentina
² Departamento de Física, Instituto de Física Aplicada, Universidad Nacional de San Luis-CONICET, Ejército de los Andes 950, D5700BWS, San Luis, Argentina

^a e-mail: pcentres@unsl.edu.ar

Received: 20 May 2013
Received in final form: 23 July 2013
Published online: 25 September 2013

Abstract

In the present paper, the site-percolation problem corresponding to linear k-mers (containing k identical units, each one occupying a lattice site) on a simple cubic lattice has been studied. The k-mers were irreversibly and isotropically deposited into the lattice. Then, the percolation threshold and critical exponents were obtained by numerical simulations and finite-size scaling theory. The results, obtained for k ranging from 1 to 100, revealed that (i) the percolation threshold exhibits a decreasing function when it is plotted as a function of the k-mer size; and (ii) the phase transition occurring in the system belongs to the standard 3D percolation universality class regardless of the value of k considered.