title: Random walkers with shrinking steps in d dimensions and their long term memory.
abstract: We study, in d dimensions, the random walker with geometrically shrinking step sizes at each hop. We emphasize the integrated quantities such as expectation values, cumulants, and moments rather than a direct study of the probability distribution. We develop a 1/d expansion technique and study various correlations of the first step to the position as time goes to infinity. We also show and substantiate with a study of the cumulants that to order 1/d the system admits a continuum counterpart equation which can be obtained with a generalization of the ordinary technique to obtain the continuum limit. We also advocate that this continuum counterpart equation, which is nothing but the ordinary diffusion equation with a diffusion constant decaying exponentially in continuous time, captures all the qualitative aspects of the discrete system and is often a good starting point for quantitative approximations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Boğaziçi University, Bebek 34342, Istanbul, Turkey. tonguc.rador@boun.edu.tr
authors.forename: Tonguç
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Rador