Lifetime of a target in the presence of N independent walkers

Abstract

We study the survival probability of an immobile target in presence of N independent diffusing walkers. We address the problem of the Mean Target Lifetime and its dependence on the number and initial distribution of the walkers when the trapping is perfect or imperfect. We consider the diffusion on lattices and in the continuous space and we address the bulk limit corresponding to a density of diffusing particles and only one isolated trap. Also, we use intermittent motion for optimization of search strategies.