Narrow Escape, Part I

Abstract

A Brownian particle with diffusion coefficient $D$ is confined to a bounded domain of volume $V$ in $\rR^3$ by a reflecting boundary, except for a small absorbing window. The mean time to absorption diverges as the window shrinks, thus rendering the calculation of the mean escape time a singular perturbation problem. We construct an asymptotic approximation for the case of an elliptical window of large semi axis $a\ll V^{1/3}$ and show that the mean escape time is $E\tau\sim\ds{\frac{V}{2\pi Da}} K(e)$, where $e$ is the eccentricity of the ellipse; and $K(\cdot)$ is the complete elliptic integral of the first kind. In the special case of a circular hole the result reduces to Lord Rayleigh's formula $E\tau\sim\ds{\frac{V}{4aD}}$, which was derived by heuristic considerations. For the special case of a spherical domain, we obtain the asymptotic expansion $E\tau=\ds{\frac{V}{4aD}} [1+\frac{a}{R} \log \frac{R}{a} + O(\frac{a}{R}) ]$. This problem is important in understanding the flow of ions in and out of narrow valves that control a wide range of biological and technological function.