Number of distinct and common sites visited by $N$ independent random walkers

Abstract

In this Chapter, we consider a model of $N$ independent random walkers, each of duration $t$, and each starting from the origin, on a lattice in $d$ dimensions. We focus on two observables, namely $D_N(t)$ and $C_N(t)$ denoting respectively the number of distinct and common sites visited by the walkers. For large $t$, where the lattice random walkers converge to independent Brownian motions, we compute exactly the mean $\langle D_N(t) \rangle$ and $\langle C_N(t) \rangle$. Our main interest is on the $N$-dependence of these quantities. While for $\langle D_N(t) \rangle$ the $N$-dependence only appears in the prefactor of the power-law growth with time, a more interesting behavior emerges for $\langle C_N(t) \rangle$. For this latter case, we show that there is a ``phase transition'' in the $(N, d)$ plane where the two critical line $d=2$ and $d=d_c(N) = 2N/(N-1)$ separate three phases of the growth of $\langle C_N(t)\rangle$. The results are extended to the mean number of sites visited exactly by $K$ of the $N$ walkers. Furthermore in $d=1$, the full distribution of $D_N(t)$ and $C_N(t)$ are computed, exploiting a mapping to the extreme value statistics. Extensions to two other models, namely $N$ independent Brownian bridges and $N$ independent resetting Brownian motions/bridges are also discussed.