English

Source localisation in simple random walks

Probability 2026-01-16 v1 Combinatorics

Abstract

We consider the problem of locating the source (starting vertex) of a simple random walk, given a snapshot of the set of edges (or vertices) visited in the first nn steps. Considering lattices Zd\mathbb{Z}^d, in dimensions d5d \geq 5, we show that the source can be identified (a) with probability bounded away from 00 using one guess, and (b) with probability arbitrarily close to 11 using a constant number of guesses. On the other hand, for dimensions d2d \leq 2, we show that one cannot locate the source with positive constant probability. Our arguments apply more generally to strongly transient and recurrent simple random walks on vertex-transitive graphs.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2601.10624,
  title  = {Source localisation in simple random walks},
  author = {Ritesh Goenka and Peter Keevash and Tomasz Przybyłowski},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2601.10624},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

25 pages, 1 figure