First-passage statistics of confined colloids

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: de Tournemire, Guirec, Fares, Nicolas, Amarouchene, Yacine, Salez, Thomas
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author de Tournemire, Guirec
Fares, Nicolas
Amarouchene, Yacine
Salez, Thomas
author_facet de Tournemire, Guirec
Fares, Nicolas
Amarouchene, Yacine
Salez, Thomas
contents The encounter of diffusing entities underlies a wide range of natural phenomena. The dynamics of these first-passage dynamics are strongly influenced by confining geometries. Confinement modifies microscopic diffusion through conservative and hydrodynamic interactions, making it essential for realistic modeling. In this Letter, we investigate how confinement affects the first-passage statistics of a diffusing particle. Using \textit{state-of-the-art} holographic microscopy combined with advanced statistical inference, we probe this motion with nanometric precision. Our experimental and numerical results show that confinement can either hinder or enhance first-passage kinetics, depending on the spatial direction. In particular, wall-normal target finding is accelerated by confinement-induced non-Gaussian displacement statistics, which increases the probability of rare, large displacements, with implications for confined chemical reactions and biological \textit{winners-take-all} processes near boundaries.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2511_11117
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle First-passage statistics of confined colloids
de Tournemire, Guirec
Fares, Nicolas
Amarouchene, Yacine
Salez, Thomas
Soft Condensed Matter
Statistical Mechanics
Classical Physics
The encounter of diffusing entities underlies a wide range of natural phenomena. The dynamics of these first-passage dynamics are strongly influenced by confining geometries. Confinement modifies microscopic diffusion through conservative and hydrodynamic interactions, making it essential for realistic modeling. In this Letter, we investigate how confinement affects the first-passage statistics of a diffusing particle. Using \textit{state-of-the-art} holographic microscopy combined with advanced statistical inference, we probe this motion with nanometric precision. Our experimental and numerical results show that confinement can either hinder or enhance first-passage kinetics, depending on the spatial direction. In particular, wall-normal target finding is accelerated by confinement-induced non-Gaussian displacement statistics, which increases the probability of rare, large displacements, with implications for confined chemical reactions and biological \textit{winners-take-all} processes near boundaries.
title First-passage statistics of confined colloids
topic Soft Condensed Matter
Statistical Mechanics
Classical Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.11117