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First-passage processes on fractals are of particular importance since fractals are ubiquitous in nature, and first-passage processes are fundamental dynamic processes that have wide applications. The global mean first-passage time (GMFPT), which is the expected time for a walker (or a particle) to first reach the given target site while the probability distribution for the position of target site is uniform, is a useful indicator for the transport efficiency of the whole network. The smaller the GMFPT, the faster the mass is transported on the network. In this work, we consider the first-passage process on a class of fractal scale-free trees (FSTs), aiming at speeding up the first-passage process on the FSTs. Firstly, we analyze the global mean first-passage time (GMFPT) for unbiased random walks on the FSTs. Then we introduce proper weight, dominated by a parameter w (w > 0), to each edge of the FSTs and construct a biased random walks strategy based on these weights. Next, we analytically evaluated the GMFPT for biased random walks on the FSTs. The exact results of the GMFPT for unbiased and biased random walks on the FSTs are both obtained. Finally, we view the GMFPT as a function of parameter w and find the point where the GMFPT achieves its minimum. The exact result is obtained and a way to optimize and speed up the first-passage process on the FSTs is presented.

In this work we consider the first encounter problems between a fixed and/or mobile target A and a moving trap B on Bethe Lattices and Cayley trees. The survival probability (SP) of the target A on the both kinds of structures are analyzed analytically and compared. On Bethe Lattices, the results show that the fixed target will still prolong its survival time, whereas, on Cayley trees, there are some initial positions where the target should move to prolong its survival time. The mean first encounter time (MFET) for mobile target A is evaluated numerically and compared with the mean first passage time (MFPT) for the fixed target A. Different initial settings are addressed and clear boundaries are obtained. These findings are helpful for optimizing the strategy to prolong the survival time of the target or to speed up the search process on Cayley trees, in relation to the target's movement and the initial position configuration of the two walkers. We also present a new method, which uses a small amount of memory, for simulating random walks on Cayley trees., 25 pages, 11 figures

We consider two random walkers embedded in a finite, two-dimension comb and we study the mean first-encounter time (MFET) evidencing (mainly numerically) different scalings with the linear size of the underlying network according to the initial position of the walkers. If one of the two players is not allowed to move, then the first-encounter problem can be recast into a first-passage problem (MFPT) for which we also obtain exact results for different initial configurations. By comparing MFET and MFPT, we are able to figure out possible search strategies and, in particular, we show that letting one player be fixed can be convenient to speed up the search as long as we can finely control the initial setting, while, for a random setting, on average, letting one player rest would slow down the search.

Random walks have wide application in real lives, such as target search, reaction kinetics, polymer chains, and so on. In this paper, we consider discrete random walks on general connected networks and focus on the global mean first return time (GMFRT), which is defined as the mean first return time averaged over all the possible starting positions (vertices), aiming at finding the structures which have the maximal (or the minimal) GMFRT. Our results show that, among all trees with a given number of vertices, trees with linear structure are those with the minimal GMFRT and stars are those with the maximal GMFRT. We also find that, among all unweighted and undirected connected simple graphs with a given number of edges and vertices, the graphs maximizing (resp. minimizing) the GMFRT are the ones for which the variance of the nodes degrees is the largest (resp. the smallest).

In this work we consider a class of recursively-grown fractal networks $G_n(t)$, whose topology is controlled by two integer parameters $t$ and $n$. We first analyse the structural properties of $G_n(t)$ (including fractal dimension, modularity and clustering coefficient) and then we move to its transport properties. The latter are studied in terms of first-passage quantities (including the mean trapping time, the global mean first-passage time and the Kemeny's constant) and we highlight that their asymptotic behavior is controlled by network's size and diameter. Remarkably, if we tune $n$ (or, analogously, $t$) while keeping the network size fixed, as $n$ increases ($t$ decreases) the network gets more and more clustered and modular, while its diameter is reduced, implying, ultimately, a better transport performance. The connection between this class of networks and models for polymer architectures is also discussed., Comment: 14 pages, 4 figures

The Tutte polynomial of a graph is a 2-variable polynomial which is quite important in both combinatorics and statistical physics. It contains various numerical invariants and polynomial invariants, such as the number of spanning trees, the number of spanning forests, the number of acyclic orientations, the reliability polynomial, chromatic polynomial and flow polynomial. In this paper, we study and gain recursive formulas for the Tutte polynomial of pseudofractal scale-free web (PSW) which implies logarithmic complexity algorithm is obtained to calculate the Tutte polynomial of PSW although it is NP-hard for general graph. We also obtain the rigorous solution for the the number of spanning trees of PSW by solving the recurrence relations derived from Tutte polynomial, which give an alternative approach for explicitly determining the number of spanning trees of PSW. Further more, we analysis the all-terminal reliability of PSW and compare the results with that of Sierpinski gasket which has the same number of nodes and edges with PSW. In contrast with the well-known conclusion that scale-free networks are more robust against removal of nodes than homogeneous networks (e.g., exponential networks and regular networks). Our results show that Sierpinski gasket (which is a regular network) are more robust against random edge failures than PSW (which is a scale-free network). Whether it is true for any regular networks and scale-free networks, is still a unresolved problem., 19pages,7figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1006.5333

We study discrete random walks on the NFSFT and provide new methods to calculate the analytic solutions of the MFPT for any pair of nodes, the MTT for any target node and MDT for any source node. Further more, using the MTT and the MDT as the measures of trapping efficiency and diffusion efficiency respectively, we compare the trapping efficiency and diffusion efficiency for any two nodes of NFSFT and find the best (or worst) trapping sites and the best (or worst) diffusion sites. Our results show that: the two hubs of NFSFT is the best trapping site, but it is also the worst diffusion site, the nodes which are the farthest nodes from the two hubs are the worst trapping sites, but they are also the best diffusion sites. Comparing the maximum and minimum of MTT and MDT, we found that the ratio between the maximum and minimum of MTT grows logarithmically with network order, but the ratio between the maximum and minimum of MTT is almost equal to $1$. These results implie that the trap's position has great effect on the trapping efficiency, but the position of source node almost has no effect on diffusion efficiency. We also conducted numerical simulation to test the results we have derived, the results we derived are consistent with those obtained by numerical simulation., 23 pages, 4 figures

Consider the nonparametric regression model Y ni = g(t ni ) + ϵ ni , 1 ≤ i ≤ n, where {t ni } are known design points, and the errors {ϵ ni } have a linear representation with and {e t , − ∞

The first return time (FRT) is the time it takes a random walker to first return to its original site, and the global first passage time (GFPT) is the first passage time for a random walker to move from a randomly selected site to a given site. We find that in finite networks the variance of FRT, Var(FRT), can be expressed Var(FRT)~$=2\langle$FRT$ \rangle \langle $GFPT$ \rangle -\langle $FRT$ \rangle^2-\langle $FRT$ \rangle$, where $\langle \cdot \rangle$ is the mean of the random variable. Therefore a method of calculating the variance of FRT on general finite networks is presented. We then calculate Var(FRT) and analyze the fluctuation of FRT on regular branched networks (i.e., Cayley tree) by using Var(FRT) and its variant as the metric. We find that the results differ from those in such other networks as Sierpinski gaskets, Vicsek fractals, T-graphs, pseudofractal scale-free webs, ($u,v$) flowers, and fractal and non-fractal scale-free trees., 7 pages,1 figure

In this paper, we study random walks on a small-world scale-free network, also called as pseudofractal scale-free web (PSFW), and analyze the volatilities of first passage time (FPT) and first return time (FRT) by using the variance and the reduced moment as the measures. Note that the FRT and FPT are deeply affected by the starting or target site. We don't intend to enumerate all the possible cases and analyze them. We only study the volatilities of FRT for a given hub (i.e., node with highest degree) and the volatilities of the global FPT (GFPT) to a given hub, which is the average of the FPTs for arriving at a given hub from any possible starting site selected randomly according to the equilibrium distribution of the Markov chain. Firstly, we calculate exactly the probability generating function of the GFPT and FRT based on the self-similar structure of the PSFW. Then, we calculate the probability distribution, the mean, the variance and reduced moment of the GFPT and FRT by using the generating functions as a tool. Results show that: the reduced moment of FRT grows with the increasing of the network order $N$ and tends to infinity while $N\rightarrow\infty$; but for the reduced moments of GFPT, it is almost a constant($\approx1.1605$) for large $N$. Therefore, on the PSFW of large size, the FRT has huge fluctuations and the estimate provided by MFRT is unreliable, whereas the fluctuations of the GFPT is much smaller and the estimate provided by its mean is more reliable. The method we propose can also be used to analyze the volatilities of FPT and FRT on other networks with self-similar structure, such as $(u, v)$ flowers and recursive scale-free trees., Comment: 2 figure, 18 pages, to be appear in JSTAT

Efficiently controlling the diffusion process is crucial in the study of diffusion problem in complex systems. In the sense of random walks with a single trap, mean trapping time(MTT) and mean diffusing time(MDT) are good measures of trapping efficiency and diffusion efficiency respectively. They both vary with the location of the node. In this paper, we study random walks on T-fractal and provided general methods to calculate the MTT for any target node and the MDT for any source node. Using the MTT and the MDT as the measure of trapping efficiency and diffusion efficiency respectively, we compare the trapping efficiency and diffusion efficiency among all nodes of T-fractal and find the best (or worst) trapping sites and the best (or worst) diffusing sites. Our results show that: the hub node of T-fractal is the best trapping site, but it is also the worst diffusing site, the three boundary nodes are the worst trapping sites, but they are also the best diffusing sites. Comparing the minimum and maximum of MTT and MDT, we found that the maximum of MTT is almost $6$ times of the minimum for MTT and the maximum of MDT is almost equal to the minimum for MDT. These results show that the location of target node has big effect on the trapping efficiency, but the location of source node almost has no effect on diffusion efficiency. We also conducted numerical simulation to test the results we have derived, the results we derived are consistent with those obtained by numerical simulation., 11 pages,6 figures. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1312.7038, arXiv:1312.7344

We study unbiased discrete random walks on the FSFT based on the its self-similar structure and the relations between random walks and electrical networks. First, we provide new methods to derive analytic solutions of the MFPT for any pair of nodes, the MTT for any target node and MDT for any starting node. And then, using the MTT and the MDT as the measures of trapping efficiency and diffusion efficiency respectively, we analyze the effect of trap's position on trapping efficiency and the effect of starting position on diffusion efficiency. Comparing the trapping efficiency and diffusion efficiency among all nodes of FSFT, we find the best (or worst) trapping sites and the best (or worst) diffusing sites. Our results show that: the node which is at the center of FSFT is the best trapping site, but it is also the worst diffusing site. The nodes which are the farthest nodes from the two hubs are the worst trapping sites, but they are also the best diffusion sites. Comparing the maximum and minimum of MTT and MDT, we found that the maximum of MTT is almost $\frac{20m^2+32m+12}{4m^2+4m+1}$ times of the minimum of MTT, but the the maximum of MDT is almost equal to the minimum of MDT. These results shows that the position of target node has big effect on trapping efficiency, but the position of starting node almost has no effect on diffusion efficiency. We also conducted numerical simulation to test the results we have derived, the results we derived are consistent with those obtained by numerical simulation., 24 pages, 6 figures. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1312.7038, arXiv:1312.7343

In this paper, we consider discrete time random walks on the pseudofractal scale-free web (PSFW) and we study analytically the related first passage properties. First, we classify the nodes of the PSFW into different levels and propose a method to derive the generation function of the first passage probability from an arbitrary starting node to the absorbing domain, which is located at one or more nodes of low-level (i.e., nodes with large degree). Then, we calculate exactly the first passage probability, the survival probability, the mean and the variance of first passage time by using the generating functions as a tool. Finally, for some illustrative examples corresponding to given choices of starting node and absorbing domain, we derive exact and explicit results for such first passage properties. The method we propose can as well address the cases where the absorbing domain is located at one or more nodes of high-level on the PSFW, and it can also be used to calculate the first passage properties on other networks with self-similar structure, such as $(u, v)$ flowers and recursive scale-free trees., 12 pages, 4 figures

The regular hyperbranched polymers (RHPs), also known as Vicsek fractals, are an important family of hyperbranched structures which have attracted a wide spread attention during the past several years. In this paper, we study the first-passage properties for random walks on the RHPs. Firstly, we propose a way to label all the different nodes of the RHPs and derive exact formulas to calculate the mean first-passage time (MFPT) between any two nodes and the mean trapping time (MTT) for any trap node. Then, we compare the trapping efficiency between any two nodes of the RHPs by using the MTT as the measures of trapping efficiency. We find that the central node of the RHPs is the best trapping site and the nodes which are the farthest nodes from the central node are the worst trapping sites. Furthermore, we find that the maximum of the MTT is about $4$ times more than the minimum of the MTT. The result is similar to the results in the recursive fractal scale-free trees and T-fractal, but it is quite different from that in the recursive non-fractal scale-free trees. These results can help understanding the influences of the topological properties and trap location on the trapping efficiency., Comment: 19 pages, 4 figures