Computer Simulations for Some One-Dimensional Models of Random Walks in Fluctuating Random Environment

We report some results of computer simulations for two models of random walks in random environment (rwre) on the one-dimensional lattice for fixed space–time configuration of the environment (“quenched rwre”): a “Markov model” with Markov dependence in time, and a “quasi stationary” model with long range space–time correlations. We compare with the corresponding results for a model with i.i.d. (in space time) environment. In the range of times available to us the quenched distributions of the random walk displacement are far from gaussian, but as the behavior is similar for all three models one cannot exclude asymptotic gaussianity, which is proved for the model with i.i.d. environment. We also report results on the random drift and on some time correlations which show a clear power decay     

Non-Hermitian Tridiagonal Random Matrices and Returns to the Origin of a Random Walk

We study a class of tridiagonal matrix models, the q-roots of unity models, which includes the sign (q=2) and the clock (q=) models by Feinberg and Zee. We find that the eigenvalue densities are bounded by and have the symmetries of the regular polygon with 2q sides, in the complex plane. Furthermore, the averaged traces of M ^k are integers that count closed random walks on the line such that each site is visited a number of times multiple of q. We obtain an explicit evaluation for them.     

Persistent Random Walks in Stationary Environment

We study the behavior of persistent random walks (RW) on the integers in a random environment. A complete characterization of the almost sure limit behavior of these processes, including the law of large numbers, is obtained. This is done in a general situation where the environmental sequence of random variables is stationary and ergodic. Szász and Tóth obtained a central limit theorem when the ratio /, of right- and left-transpassing probabilities satisfies /a<1 a.s. (for a given constant a). We consider the case where / has wider fluctuations; we shall observe that an unusual situation arises: the RW may converge a.s. to infinity even with zero drift. Then, we obtain nonclassical limiting distributions for the RW. Proofs are based on the introduction of suitable branching processes in order to count the steps performed by the RW.     

A Note on Transience Versus Recurrence for a Branching Random Walk in Random Environment

We consider a branching random walk in random environment on ^d where particles perform independent simple random walks and branch, according to a given offspring distribution, at a random subset of sites whose density tends to zero at infinity. Given that initially one particle starts at the origin, we identify the critical rate of decay of the density of the branching sites separating transience from recurrence, i.e., the progeny hits the origin with probability <1 resp. =1. We show that for d3 there is a dichotomy in the critical rate of decay, depending on whether the mean offspring at a branching site is above or below a certain value related to the return probability of the simple random walk. The dichotomy marks a transition from local to global behavior in the progeny that hits the origin. We also consider the situation where the branching sites occur in two or more types, with different offspring distributions, and show that the classification is more subtle due to a possible interplay between the types. This note is part of a series of papers by the second author and various co-authors investigating the problem of transience versus recurrence for random motions in random media.     

When a Random Walk of Fixed Length can Lead Uniformly Anywhere Inside a Hypersphere

A variation of the Pearson-Rayleigh random walk in which the steps are i.i.d. random vectors of exponential length and uniform orientation is considered. Conditioned on the total path length, the probability density function of the position of the walker after n steps is determined analytically in one and two dimensions. It is shown that in two dimensions n = 3 marks a critical transition point in the behavior of the random walk. By taking less than three steps and walking a total length l, one is more likely to end the walk near the boundary of the disc of radius l, while by taking more than three steps one is more likely to end near the origin. Somehow surprisingly, by taking exactly three steps one can end uniformly anywhere inside the disc of radius l. This means that conditioned on l, the sum of three vectors of exponential length and uniform direction has a uniform probability density. While the presented analytic approach provides a complete solution for all n, it becomes intractable in higher dimensions. In this case, it is shown that a necessary condition to have a uniform density in dimension d is that 2(d + 2)/d is an integer, equal to n + 1.     

Random Walk on the Range of Random Walk

We study the random walk X on the range of a simple random walk on ℤ ^d in dimensions d≥4. When d≥5 we establish quenched and annealed scaling limits for the process X, which show that the intersections of the original simple random walk path are essentially unimportant. For d=4 our results are less precise, but we are able to show that any scaling limit for X will require logarithmic corrections to the polynomial scaling factors seen in higher dimensions. Furthermore, we demonstrate that when d=4 similar logarithmic corrections are necessary in describing the asymptotic behavior of the return probability of X to the origin.     

Area Distribution for Directed Random Walks

We study the probability distribution for the area under a directed random walk in the plane. The walk can serve as a simple model for avalanches based on the idea that the front of an avalanche can be described by a random walk and the size is given by the area enclosed. This model captures some of the qualitative features of earthquakes, avalanches, and other self-organized critical phenomena in one dimension. By finding nonlinear functional relations for the generating functions we calculate directly the exponent in the size distribution law and find it to be 4/3.     

Modes of a Gaussian Random Walk

It is demonstrated that a one-dimensional gaussian random walk (GRW) possesses an underlying structure in the form of random oscillatory modes. These modes are not sinusoids, but can be isolated by a well-defined procedure. They have average wavelengths and amplitudes, both of which can be determined by experiments or by theoretical calculations. This paper reports such determinations by both methods and also develops a theory that is ultimately shown to agree with experiments. Both theory and simulations show that the average wavelength and the average amplitude scale with the order of the mode in exactly the same way that the modes of the well-known Weierstrass fractal scale with mode order. This is remarkable since the wave generated by the Weierstrass function, , is fully determined for the variable x whereas the GRW is stochastic. By increasing the size of the steps in the GRW, it is possible to selectively remove the fastest modes, while leaving the remaining modes almost unchanged. For a GRW, the parameters corresponding to a and g in the Weierstrass function are found to be 2.0 and 4.0, respectively. These values are independent of the variance associated with the GRW. Application of the random modes is reserved for a later paper.     

Random walks with short memory

A restricted random walk on ad-dimensional cubic lattice with different probabilities for forward, backward, and sideward steps is studied. The analytic solution for the generating function, exact expressions for the second and fourth moments of displacements, and diffusion and Burnett coefficients are given, as well as a systematic asymptotic expansion for the probability distribution of long walks.This paper is dedicated to Nico van Kampen.     

Euler Walk on a Cayley Tree

We describe two possible regimes (dynamic phases) of the Euler walk on a Cayley tree: a condensed phase and a low-density phase. In the condensed phase the area of visited sites grows as a compact domain. In the low-density phase the proportion of visited sites decreases rapidly from one generation of the tree to the next. We describe in detail returns of the walker to the root and growth of the domain of visited sites in the condensed phase. We also investigate the critical behaviour of the model on the line separating the two regimes.     

通过耦合降低随机行走的扩散速度(英文)

研究一个耦合的离散时间马尔可夫随机行走模型,将两个行走者耦合成对,通过改变演化到每一步时行走方向的分布情况,使得每个行走者有更大的概率向着它的共轭行走者的方向演化.在这种耦合方式下,增加耦合强度会使随机行走的扩散速度下降.最关键的问题是演化方向的分布情况,步长的分布情况只起次要作用.因为耦合,成对的行走者将进入某种同步状态.这种同步状态正是扩散速度下降的原因.     

A Semi-Deterministic Random Walk with Resetting

We consider a discrete-time random walk (xt) which, at random times, is reset to the starting position and performs a deterministic motion between them. We show that the quantity determines if the system is averse, neutral or inclined towards resetting. It also classifies the stationary distribution. Double barrier probabilities, first passage times and the distribution of the escape time from intervals are determined.     

Stationary Probability and First-Passage Time of Biased Random Walk

In this paper, we consider the stationary probability and first-passage time of biased random walk on 1D chain, where at each step the walker moves to the left and right with probabilities p and q respectively (0≤p, q≤1, p+q=1). We derive exact analytical results for the stationary probability and first-passage time as a function of p and q for the first time. Our results suggest that the first-passage time shows a double power-law F~(N-1)^γ, where the exponent γ=2 for N<|p-q|^-1 and γ=1 for N>|p-q|^-1. Our study sheds useful insights into the biased random-walk process.     

Velocity and Dispersion for a Two-Dimensional Random Walk

In the paper, we consider the transport of a two-dimensional random walk. The velocity and the dispersion of this two-dimensional random walk are derived. It mainly show that： （i） by controlling the values of the transition rates, the direction of the random walk can be reversed; （ii） for some suitably selected transition rates, our two-dimensional random walk can be efficient in comparison with the one-dimensional random walk. Our work is motivated in part by the challenge to explain the unidirectional transport of motor proteins. When the motor proteins move at the turn points of their tracks （i.e., the cytoskeleton filaments and the DNA molecular tubes）, some of our results in this paper can be used to deal with the problem.     

Scaling Argument of Anisotropic Random Walk

In this paper, we analytically discuss the scaling properties of the average square end-to-end distance 〈R²〉for anisotropic random walk in D-dimensional space (D≥2), and the returning probability P_n( r₀) for the walker into a certain neighborhood of the origin. We will not only give the calculating formula for 〈R²〉and P_n(r₀), but also point out that if there is a symmetric axis for the distribution of the probability density of a single step displacement, we always obtain 〈R²_⊥n〉～n, where ⊥ refers to the projections of the displacement perpendicular to each symmetric axes of the walk; in D-dimensional space with D symmetric axes perpendicular to each other, we always have 〈R_n²〉～n and the random walk will be like a purely random motion; if the number of inter-perpendicular symmetric axis is smaller than the dimensions of the space, we must have 〈R_n²〉～n² for very large n and the walk will be like a ballistic motion. It is worth while to point out that unlike the isotropic random walk in one and two dimensions, which is certain to return into the neighborhood of the origin, generally there is only a nonzero probability for the anisotropic random walker in two dimensions to return to the neighborhood.     

Wavefunction Collapse and Random Walk

Wavefunction collapse models modify Schrödinger's equation so that it describes the rapid evolution of a superposition of macroscopically distinguishable states to one of them. This provides a phenomenological basis for a physical resolution to the so-called measurement problem. Such models have experimentally testable differences from standard quantum theory. The most well developed such model at present is the Continuous Spontaneous Localization (CSL) model in which a universal fluctuating classical field interacts with particles to cause collapse. One side effect of this interaction is that the field imparts energy to the particles: experimental evidence on this has led to restrictions on the parameters of the model, suggesting that the coupling of the classical field to the particles must be mass-proportional. Another side effect is that the field imparts momentum to particles, causing a small blob of matter to undergo random walk. Here we explore this in order to supply predictions which could be experimentally tested. We examine the translational diffusion of a sphere and a disc, and the rotational diffusion of a disc, according to CSL. For example, we find that the rms distance an isolated 10^–5 cm radius sphere diffuses is (its diameter, 5 cm) in (20 sec, a day), and that a disc of radius 2 10^–5 cm and thickness 0.5 10^–5 cm diffuses through 2rad in about 70 sec (this assumes the standard CSL parameter values). The comparable rms diffusions of standard quantum theory are smaller than these by a factor 10^–3±1. It is shown that the CSL diffusion in air at STP is much reduced and, indeed, is swamped by the ordinary Brownian motion. It is also shown that the sphere's diffusion in a thermal radiation bath at room temperature is comparable to the CSL diffusion, but is utterly negligible at liquid He temperature. Thus, in order to observe CSL diffusion, the pressure and temperature must be low. At the low reported pressure of 5 10^–17 Torr, achieved at 4.2°K, the mean time between air molecule collisions with the (sphere, disc) is (80, 45)min. This is ample time for observation of the putative CSL diffusion with the standard parameters and, it is pointed out, with any parameters in the range over which the theory may be considered viable. This encourages consideration of how such an experiment may actually be performed, and the paper closes with some thoughts on this subject.     

Random Walks on a Fractal Solid

It is established that the trapping of a random walker undergoing unbiased, nearest-neighbor displacements on a triangular lattice of Euclidean dimension d=2 is more efficient (i.e., the mean walklength n before trapping of the random walker is shorter) than on a fractal set, the Sierpinski tower, which has a Hausdorff dimension D exactly equal to the Euclidean dimension of the regular lattice. We also explore whether the self similarity in the geometrical structure of the Sierpinski lattice translates into a self similarity in diffusional flows, and find that expressions for n having a common analytic form can be obtained for sites that are the first- and second-nearest-neighbors to a vertex trap.     

Analytic results for asymmetric Random Walk with exponential transition probabilities

We present here exact analytic results for a random walk on a one-dimensional lattice with asymmetric, exponentially distributed jump probabilities. We derive the generating functions of such a walk for a perfect lattice and for a lattice with absorbing boundaries. We obtain solutions for some interesting moment properties, such as mean first passage time, drift velocity, dispersion, and branching ratio for absorption. The symmetric exponential walk is solved as a special case. The scaling of the mean first passage time with the size of the system for the exponentially distributed walk is determined by the symmetry and is independent of the range.Supported by the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy.NSF Energy Related Postdoctoral Fellow.