Poissonization-based collision threshold derivation for random walks on lattices
Probability
2025-05-07 v1
Abstract
In this expository note, we give a short derivation of the expected number of collisions between two independent simple random walkers on integer lattices. Adapting a Poissonization technique introduced by Lange, we express the collision probability as the return probability of the continuous-time difference walk, given by a modified Bessel function. Analyzing its asymptotic decay yields a clean, self-contained proof that the expected number of collisions in is finite if and only if . We also provide a general formula for the asymptotic number of collisions.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2505.02973,
title = {Poissonization-based collision threshold derivation for random walks on lattices},
author = {Zachary Burton},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2505.02973},
year = {2025}
}
Comments
6 pages