So far I have been running all my simulations with the intention of eliminating leaks. I am however, wondering how are the leaked particles handled?
Say I created a pipe with one end being a gas source and the other a transparent facet. Would this system behave exactly the same if the transparent facet was instead a perfect pump with a sticking factor of 1?
Yes, in the case of one single perfect pump, a leak is equivalent.
Usually you’d like to use sticking=1 because it helps distinguish geometry errors from pumping, and in case of several pumps you’d want to know the ratio of pumps.
There are some final drawbacks: transparent facets only count hits, profiles and textures if there is at least one valid hit after them.