Extended narrow escape problem: Boundary homogenization-based analysis

Abstract

Diffusion of particles in confined domains with absorbing spots on the otherwise reflecting boundaries is ubiquitous in nature and technology. Because of nonuniform boundary conditions, the problem of finding the mean first passage time (MFPT) of the particle to one of the spots is extremely complicated. We show how the difficulties can be overcome by means of boundary homogenization when the domain is a circular disk whose boundary contains n nonoverlapping identical absorbing arcs, which may occupy an arbitrary fraction of the boundary. We find the MFPT as a function of the fraction of the boundary occupied by the arcs (i) for n evenly spaced arcs and (ii) for two arcs arbitrarily located on the boundary. As the arc length tends to zero, our approximate solution reduces to the known asymptotic formula for the MFPT rigorously derived in studies devoted of the narrow escape problem.