Infinite System of Random Walkers: Winners and Losers

DOI10.1088/1751-8121/ABD8B3MaRDI QIDQ6350087arXivFDO

Authors P. L. Krapivsky

Publication date 28 September 2020

Published in arXiv

Full work available at URL https://doi.org/10.1088/1751-8121/ABD8B3

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Sums of independent random variables; random walks (60G50) Dynamics of random walks, random surfaces, lattice animals, etc. in time-dependent statistical mechanics (82C41)

arXiv classification

cond-mat.stat-mechmath.PRphysics.soc-ph

Abstract: We study an infinite system of particles initially occupying a half-line $yleq0$ and undergoing random walks on the entire line. The right-most particle is called a leader. Surprisingly, every particle except the original leader may never achieve the leadership throughout the evolution. For the equidistant initial configuration, the $k^{extth}$ particle attains the leadership with probability $e^{-2}{k}^{-1}(lnk{)}^{-1/2}$ when $kgg1$. This provides a quantitative measure of the correlation between earlier misfortune (represented by $k$) and eternal failure. We also show that the winner defined as the first walker overtaking the initial leader has label $kgg1$ with probability decaying as $exp!left[-frac12(lnk{)}^{2}ight]$.

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