English

On P\'olya's random walk constants

Probability 2024-03-07 v4 Classical Analysis and ODEs

Abstract

A celebrated result in probability theory is that a simple symmetric random walk on the dd-dimensional lattice Zd\mathbb{Z}^d is recurrent for d=1,2d=1,2 and transient for d3d\geq 3. In this note, we derive a closed-form expression, in terms of the Lauricella function FCF_C, for the return probability for all d3d\geq3. Previously, a closed-form formula had only been available for d=3d=3.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2311.11326,
  title  = {On P\'olya's random walk constants},
  author = {Robert E. Gaunt and Saralees Nadarajah and Tibor K. Pogány},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2311.11326},
  year   = {2024}
}

Comments

5 pages

R2 v1 2026-06-28T13:25:24.429Z