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  • Open Access

First-passage statistics of confined colloids

Guirec de Tournemire1, Nicolas Fares1, Yacine Amarouchene1,*, and Thomas Salez1,2,†

  • 1Univ. Bordeaux, CNRS, LOMA, UMR 5798, F-33405 Talence, France
  • 2Mechanics Department, Ecole Polytechnique, Institut Polytechnique de Paris, 91128 Palaiseau, France

  • *Contact author: yacine.amarouchene@u-bordeaux.fr
  • †Contact author: thomas.salez@cnrs.fr
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Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033309 – Published 14 September, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/6bzx-34wr

Abstract

The encounter of diffusing entities underlies a wide range of natural phenomena. The dynamics of these first-passage dynamics are strongly influenced by confining geometries. Confinement modifies microscopic diffusion through conservative and hydrodynamic interactions, making it essential for realistic modeling. In this article, we investigate how confinement affects the first-passage statistics of a diffusing particle. Using state-of-the-art holographic microscopy combined with advanced statistical inference, we probe this motion with nanometric precision. Our experimental and numerical results show that confinement can either hinder or enhance first-passage kinetics, depending on the spatial direction. In particular, a wall-normal target finding is accelerated by confinement-induced non-Gaussian displacement statistics—which increases the probability of rare, large displacements—compared to an analogous situation relying on a Gaussian process. The results presented hereafter carry implications for confined chemical reactions and biological winners-take-all processes near boundaries.

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Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033309– Published 14 September, 2026
  • Received 6 January 2026
  • Accepted 23 July 2026
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

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