Spontaneous symmetry breaking in a bridge model fed by junctions

We introduce a class of 1D models mimicking a single-lane bridge with two junctions and two particle species driven in opposite directions. The model exhibits spontaneous symmetry breaking (SSB) for a range of injection/extraction rates. In this phase the steady-state currents of the two species are not equal. Moreover, there is a co-existence region in which the symmetry-broken phase co-exists with a symmetric phase. Along a path in which the extraction rate is varied, keeping the injection rate fixed and large, hysteresis takes place. The mean-field phase diagram is calculated and supporting Monte Carlo simulations are presented. One of the transition lines exhibits a kink, a feature which cannot exist in transition lines of equilibrium phase transitions.