Statistical physics of synchronized traffic flow: Spatiotemporal competition between SF and SJ instabilities

Boris S. Kerner
Phys. Rev. E 100, 012303 – Published 9 July 2019; Erratum Phys. Rev. E 101, 019901 (2020)

Abstract

We have revealed statistical physics of synchronized traffic flow that is governed by a spatiotemporal competition between SF and SJ instabilities (where F, S, and J denote, respectively, the free flow, synchronized flow, and wide moving jam traffic phases). A probabilistic analysis of synchronized flow based on simulations of a cellular automaton model in the framework of three-phase traffic theory is made. This probabilistic analysis shows that there is a finite range of the initial space gap between vehicles in synchronized flow within which during a chosen time for traffic observation either synchronized flow persists with probability PS, or an SF transition occurs with probability PSF, or else an SJ transition occurs with probability PSJ. Space-gap dependencies of the probabilities PS, PSF, and PSJ have been found. It has been also found that (i) an initial SF instability can lead to sequences of SFSJ transitions; (ii) an initial SJ instability can lead to sequences of SJSF transitions. Each of the phase transitions in the sequences SFSJ transitions and SJSF transitions exhibits the nucleation nature; these sequences of phase transitions determine spatiotemporal features of traffic patterns resulting from the competition between SF and SJ instabilities. The statistical features of synchronized flow found for a homogeneous road remain qualitatively for a road with a bottleneck. However, rather than nuclei for SF and SJ instabilities occurring at random road locations of the homogeneous road, due to a permanent nonhomogeneity introduced by the bottleneck, nuclei for initial SF and SJ instabilities appear mostly at the bottleneck.

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  • Received 19 March 2019

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.100.012303

©2019 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

  1. Research Areas
Interdisciplinary Physics

Erratum

Authors & Affiliations

Boris S. Kerner

  • Physics of Transport and Traffic, University Duisburg-Essen, 47048 Duisburg, Germany

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Issue

Vol. 100, Iss. 1 — July 2019

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