Mean-performance of sharp restart I: Statistical roadmap

DOI10.1088/1751-8121/ABAE8CzbMATH Open1519.60076arXiv2003.14116WikidataQ122420472 ScholiaQ122420472MaRDI QIDQ6337752FDOQ6337752

Shlomi Reuveni, Iddo I. Eliazar

Publication date: 31 March 2020

Abstract: Restart is a general framework, of prime importance and wide applicability, for expediting first-passage times and completion times of general stochastic processes. Restart protocols can use either deterministic or stochastic timers. Restart protocols with deterministic timers -- "sharp restart" -- assume a principal role: if there exists a restart protocol that improves mean-performance, then there exists a sharp-restart protocol that performs as good or better. This paper, the first of a duo, presents a comprehensive mean-performance analysis of sharp restart. Using statistical methods, the analysis establishes universal criteria that determine when sharp restart improves or worsens mean-performance, i.e., decreases or increases mean first-passage/completion times. These criteria are akin to those recently discovered for the most widely applied restart protocols -- "exponential restart" -- which use exponentially-distributed timers. However, while the exponential-restart criteria cover only the case of slow timers, the sharp-restart criteria established here further cover the cases of fast, critical, and general timers; moreover, the latter criteria address the very existence of timers with which sharp restart improves or worsens mean-performance. Using the slow-timers criteria, we discover a general scenario for which: sharp restart improves mean-performance, whereas exponential restart worsens mean-performance. The potency of the novel results presented here is demonstrated by examples, and by the results' application to canonical diffusion processes.

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Diffusion processes (60J60) Interacting random processes; statistical mechanics type models; percolation theory (60K35) Stochastic methods (Fokker-Planck, Langevin, etc.) applied to problems in time-dependent statistical mechanics (82C31)

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