Random walk on random walks: Low densities

Abstract

We consider a random walker in a dynamic random environment given by a system of independent discrete-time simple symmetric random walks. We obtain ballisticity results under two types of perturbations: low particle density, and strong local drift on particles. Surprisingly, the random walker may behave very differently depending on whether the underlying environment particles perform lazy or nonlazy random walks, which is related to a notion of permeability of the system. We also provide a strong law of large numbers, a functional central limit theorem and large deviation bounds under an ellipticity condition.