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  • Open Access

Diffusion with stochastic resetting on a lattice

Alexander K. Hartmann1,* and Satya N. Majumdar2,†

  • *Contact author: a.hartmann@uni-oldenburg.de
  • †Contact author: satyanarayan.majumdar@cnrs.fr

Phys. Rev. E 112, 034102 – Published 2 September, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/1xkk-7q63

Abstract

We provide an exact formula for the mean first-passage time (MFPT) to a target at the origin for a single particle diffusing on a d-dimensional hypercubic lattice starting from a fixed initial position R⃗0 and resetting to R⃗0 with a rate r. Previously known results in the continuous space are recovered in the scaling limit r→0, R0=|R⃗0|→∞ with the product rR0 fixed. However, our formula is valid for any r and any R⃗0 that enables us to explore a much wider region of the parameter space that are inaccessible in the continuum limit. For example, we have shown that the MFPT, as a function of r for fixed R⃗0, diverges in the two opposite limits r→0 and r→∞ with a unique minimum in between, provided the starting point is not a nearest neighbor of the target. In this case, the MFPT diverges as a power law ∼rϕ as r→∞, but very interestingly with an exponent ϕ=(|m1|+|m2|+...+|md|)−1 that depends on the starting point R⃗0=a(m1,m2,...,md) where a is the lattice spacing and mi's are integers. If, on the other hand, the starting point happens to be a nearest neighbor of the target, then the MFPT decreases monotonically with increasing r, approaching a universal limiting value 1 as r→∞, indicating that the optimal resetting rate in this case is infinity. We provide a simple physical reason and a simple Markov-chain explanation behind this somewhat unexpected universal result. These interesting results on a lattice are not captured by the continuum theory. Our analytical predictions are verified in numerical simulations on lattices up to 50 dimensions. Finally, in the absence of a target, we also compute exactly the position distribution of the walker in the nonequlibrium stationary state that also displays interesting lattice effects not captured by the continuum theory.

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