  We study the nonequilibrium properties of directed Ising models with non
conserved dynamics, in which each spin is influenced by only a subset of its
nearest neighbours. We treat the following models: (i) the one-dimensional
chain; (ii) the two-dimensional square lattice; (iii) the two-dimensional
triangular lattice; (iv) the three-dimensional cubic lattice. We raise and
answer the question: (a) Under what conditions is the stationary state
described by the equilibrium Boltzmann-Gibbs distribution? We show that for
models (i), (ii), and (iii), in which each spin "sees" only half of its
neighbours, there is a unique set of transition rates, namely with exponential
dependence in the local field, for which this is the case. For model (iv), we
find that any rates satisfying the constraints required for the stationary
measure to be Gibbsian should satisfy detailed balance, ruling out the
possibility of directed dynamics. We finally show that directed models on
lattices of coordination number $z\ge8$ with exponential rates cannot
accommodate a Gibbsian stationary state. We conjecture that this property
extends to any form of the rates. We are thus led to the conclusion that
directed models with Gibbsian stationary states only exist in dimension one and
two. We then raise the question: (b) Do directed Ising models, augmented by
Glauber dynamics, exhibit a phase transition to a ferromagnetic state? For the
models considered above, the answers are open problems, to the exception of the
simple cases (i) and (ii). For Cayley trees, where each spin sees only the
spins further from the root, we show that there is a phase transition provided
the branching ratio, $q$, satisfies $q \ge 3$.
