RANDOM SEQUENTIAL ADSORPTION ON A LINE - MEAN-FIELD THEORY OF DIFFUSIONAL RELAXATION

We develop a new fast-diffusion approximation for the kinetics of deposition of extended objects on a linear substrate, accompanied by diffusional relaxation. This new approximation plays the role of the mean-field theory for such processes and is valid over a significantly larger range then an earlier variant, which was based on a mapping to chemical reactions. In particular, continuum-limit off-lattice deposition is described naturally within our approximation. The criteria for the applicability of the mean-field theory are derived. While deposition of dimers, and marginally, trimers, is affected by fluctuations, we find that the k-mer deposition kinetics is asymptotically mean-field-like for all k = 4,5,..., + infinity, where the limit k --> infinity, when properly defined, describes deposition-diffusion kinetics in the continuum.