Number of distinct sites visited by a random walker trapped by an absorbing boundary

Phys Rev E Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys. 2002 Jul;66(1 Pt 1):012901. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevE.66.012901. Epub 2002 Jul 23.

Abstract

The number of distinct sites visited by a lattice random walker is a subject of continuing interest in both mathematics and physics. All previous investigations have used the assumption that the lattice is unbounded. An assessment of the amount of tissue interrogated by a photon in reflectance measurements for diagnostic purposes suggests analyzing properties of the average number of distinct sites visited by a random walker trapped by an absorbing plane at time t. We show that for sufficiently large t this number is the same as the average number of distinct sites visited for this time when the surface is not present. A more complete analysis is possible for a random walk on a line terminated by an absorbing point.

MeSH terms

  • Absorption
  • Biophysical Phenomena
  • Biophysics
  • Humans
  • Models, Biological
  • Models, Theoretical*
  • Optics and Photonics*
  • Photons