Directed percolation with long-range interactions: Modeling nonequilibrium wetting

It is argued that some phase transitions observed in models of nonequilibrium wetting phenomena are related to contact processes with long-range interactions. This is investigated by introducing a model where the activation rate of a site at the edge of an inactive island of length l is 1+al-?. Mean-field analysis and numerical simulations indicate that for ?>1 the transition is continuous and belongs to the universality class of directed percolation, while for 0