Exact results for an asymmetric annihilation process with open boundaries

We consider a nonequilibrium reaction-diffusion model on a finite one-dimensional lattice with bulk and boundary dynamics inspired by the Glauber dynamics of the Ising model. We show that the model has a rich algebraic structure that we use to calculate its properties. In particular, we show that the Markov dynamics for a system of a given size can be embedded into the dynamics of systems of higher sizes. This remark leads us to devise a technique which we call the transfer matrix Ansatz that allows us to determine the steady-state distribution and correlation functions. Furthermore, we show that the disorder variables satisfy very simple properties and we give a conjecture for the characteristic polynomial of Markov matrices. Finally, we compare the transfer matrix Ansatz used here with the matrix product representation of the steady state of one-dimensional stochastic models.