Noise-Induced Phase Transition in Traffic Flow^*

One of the dynamic phases of the traffic flow is the traffic jam. It appears in traffic flow when the vehicle density is larger than the critical value. In this paper, a new method is presented to investigate the traffic jam when the vehicle density is smaller than the critical value. In our method, we introduce noise into the traffic system after sufficient transient time. Under the effect of noise, the traffic jam appears, and the phase transition from free to synchronized flow occurs in traffic flow. Our method is tested for the deterministic NaSch traffic model. The simulation results demonstrate that there exist a broad range of lower densities at which the noise effect leading to traffic jam can be observed.