title: Hitting and trapping times on branched structures.
abstract: In this work we consider a simple random walk embedded in a generic branched structure and we find a close-form formula to calculate the hitting time H(i,f) between two arbitrary nodes i and j. We then use this formula to obtain the set of hitting times {H(i,f)} for combs and their expectation values, namely, the mean first-passage time, where the average is performed over the initial node while the final node f is given, and the global mean first-passage time, where the average is performed over both the initial and the final node. Finally, we discuss applications in the context of reaction-diffusion problems.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Fisica, Sapienza Università di Roma, 00185 Roma, Italy.|Università Campus Bio-Medico, Roma, Italy.
authors.forename: Elena
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Agliari
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Fisica e Scienze della Terra, Università di Parma, Parma, Italy.
authors.forename: Fabio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Sartori
authors.affiliation: Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa, Italy.
authors.forename: Luca
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Cattivelli
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Fisica e Scienze della Terra, Università di Parma, Parma, Italy.
authors.forename: Davide
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Cassi
mesh_terms: D004058:Diffusion; D007700:Kinetics; D008962:Models, Theoretical