Percolation of polyatomic species on a simple cubic lattice

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.