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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Grange, Pascal, Yuan, Linglong
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2411.11601
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author Grange, Pascal
Yuan, Linglong
author_facet Grange, Pascal
Yuan, Linglong
contents We consider a run-and-tumble particle on a half-line with an absorbing target at the origin. The particle has an internal velocity state that switches between two opposite values at Poisson-distributed times. The position of the particle evolves according to an overdamped Langevin dynamics with a spatially-periodic force field such that every point in a given period interval is accessible to the particle. The survival probability of the particle satisfies a backward Fokker--Planck equation, whose Laplace transform yields systems of equations for the moments of the first-passage time of the particle at the origin. The mean first-passage time has already been calculated assuming that the particle exits the system almost surely. We calculate the probability that the particle reaches the origin in a finite time, given its initial position and velocity. We obtain an integral condition on the force, under which the particle has a non-zero survival probability. The conditional average of the first-passage time at the origin (over the trajectories that reach the origin) is obtained in closed form. As an application, we consider a piecewise-constant force field that alternates periodically between two opposite values. In the limit where the period is short compared to the mean free path of the particle, the mean first-return time to the origin coincides with the value obtained in the case of an effective constant drift, which we calculate explicitly.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2411_11601
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Mean first-passage time at the origin of a run-and-tumble particle with periodic forces
Grange, Pascal
Yuan, Linglong
Statistical Mechanics
We consider a run-and-tumble particle on a half-line with an absorbing target at the origin. The particle has an internal velocity state that switches between two opposite values at Poisson-distributed times. The position of the particle evolves according to an overdamped Langevin dynamics with a spatially-periodic force field such that every point in a given period interval is accessible to the particle. The survival probability of the particle satisfies a backward Fokker--Planck equation, whose Laplace transform yields systems of equations for the moments of the first-passage time of the particle at the origin. The mean first-passage time has already been calculated assuming that the particle exits the system almost surely. We calculate the probability that the particle reaches the origin in a finite time, given its initial position and velocity. We obtain an integral condition on the force, under which the particle has a non-zero survival probability. The conditional average of the first-passage time at the origin (over the trajectories that reach the origin) is obtained in closed form. As an application, we consider a piecewise-constant force field that alternates periodically between two opposite values. In the limit where the period is short compared to the mean free path of the particle, the mean first-return time to the origin coincides with the value obtained in the case of an effective constant drift, which we calculate explicitly.
title Mean first-passage time at the origin of a run-and-tumble particle with periodic forces
topic Statistical Mechanics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2411.11601