Enhancing search efficiency through diffusive echo

Abstract

Despite having been studied for decades, first passage processes remain an active area of research. In this article, we examine a particle diffusing in an annulus with an inner absorbing boundary and an outer reflective boundary. We obtain analytic expressions for the joint distribution of the hitting time and the hitting angle in two and three dimensions. For certain configurations, we observe a “diffusive echo,” i.e., two well-defined maxima in the first passage time distribution to a targeted position on the absorbing boundary. This effect, which results from the interplay between the starting location and the environmental constraints, may help to significantly increase the efficiency of the random search by generating a high, sustained flux to the targeted position over a short period. Finally, we examine the corresponding one-dimensional system for which there is no well-defined echo. In a confined system, the flux integrated over all target positions always displays a shoulder. This does not, however, guarantee the presence of an echo in the joint distribution.