English

First-passage time of a Brownian motion: two unexpected journeys

Statistical Mechanics 2024-09-04 v3 Probability

Abstract

The distribution of the first-passage time (FPT)TaT_a for a Brownian particle with drift μ\mu subject to hitting an absorber at a level a>0a>0 is well-known and given by its density γ(t)=a2πt3e(aμt)22t,t>0\gamma(t) = \frac{a}{\sqrt{2 \pi t^3} } e^{-\frac{(a-\mu t)^2}{2 t}}, t>0, which is normalized only if μ0\mu \geq 0. This article demonstrates the existence of two additional diffusion process categories (one with one parameter and the other with two) that have the same first passage-time distributions when μ<0\mu <0. For both, we identify the transition densities and thoroughly investigate the processes. A substantial implication is that the first-passage time distribution does not indicate whether the process originates from a drifted Brownian motion or from one of the new processes presented.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2306.17656,
  title  = {First-passage time of a Brownian motion: two unexpected journeys},
  author = {Alain Mazzolo},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2306.17656},
  year   = {2024}
}

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