English

Target search by active particles

Statistical Mechanics 2025-03-12 v1

Abstract

Active particles, which are self-propelled nonequilibrium systems, are modelled by overdamped Langevin equations with colored noise, emulating the self-propulsion. In this chapter, we present a review of the theoretical results for the target search problem of these particles. We focus on three most well-known models, namely, run-and-tumble particles, active Brownian particles, and direction reversing active Brownian particles, which differ in their self-propulsion dynamics. For each of these models, we discuss the first-passage and survival probabilities in the presence of an absorbing target. We also discuss how resetting helps the active particles find targets in a finite time.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2311.17854,
  title  = {Target search by active particles},
  author = {Urna Basu and Sanjib Sabhapandit and Ion Santra},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2311.17854},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

Prepared as an invited chapter for the book 'THE TARGET PROBLEM' (Editors: D. S. Grebenkov, R. Metzler, G. Oshanin)

R2 v1 2026-06-28T13:35:45.332Z