On the survival probability of a random walk in a finite lattice with a single trap

We consider the survival of a random walker in a finite lattice with periodic boundary conditions. The initial position of the random walker is uniformly distributed on the lattice with respect to the trap. We show that the survival of a random walker, U _n>, can be exactly related to the expected number of distinct sites visted on a trap-free lattice by U _n=1–S _n/N ^D (*) whereN ^D is the number of lattice points inD dimensions. We then analyze the behavior of S_n in any number of dimensions by using Tauberian methods. We find that at sufficiently long times S _n decays exponentially withn in all numbers of dimensions. InD = 1 and 2 dimensions there is an intermediate behavior which can be calculated and is valid forN ²N 1 whenD = 1 andN lnN n 1 whenD = 2. No such crossover exists when Z3. The form of (*) suggests that the single trap approximation is indeed a valid low-concentration limit for survival on an infinite lattice with a finite concentration of traps.