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First-Passage Times and Target Search Strategies| old_uid | 4097 |
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| title | First-Passage Times and Target Search Strategies |
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| start_date | 2008/02/15 |
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| schedule | 09h |
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| online | no |
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| summary | How long does it take for a "searcher" to reach a target" point for the first time? This first-passage time is actually a key quantity for evaluating the spreading of diseases, the kinetics of diffusion limited reactions, or the time needed for animals to find food resources.
I will first show that intermittent search strategies, which combine phases of active perception and phases of mere displacement constitute efficient strategies that allow to minimize the search time. I will rely on two examples at very different scales: the search for a specific target sequence on DNA by a protein, and the foraging strategies of animals.
In a second part, I will present recent results which permit to evaluate precisely the mean first-passage time for a wide range of random searchers evolving in a confined domain. This approach reveals a universal dependence of the mean first-passage time on the geometric characteristics of the problem. I will briefly show how these results apply to transport in fractal and disordered media, and to anomalous diffusion. |
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| responsibles | Bourgine |
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