Last-passage time for linear diffusions and application to the emptying time of a box

Abstract

We study the statistics of last-passage time for linear diffusions. First we present an elementary derivation of the Laplace transform of the probability density of the last-passage time, thus recovering known results from the mathematical literature. We then illustrate them on several explicit examples. In a second step we study the spectral properties of the Schrödinger operator associated to such diffusions in an even potential $U(x)=U(-x)$, unveiling the role played by the so-called Weyl coefficient. Indeed, in this case, our approach allows us to relate the last-passage times for dual diffusions (i.e., diffusions driven by opposite force fields) and to obtain new explicit formulae for the mean last-passage time. We further show that, for such even potentials, the small time $t$ expansion of the mean last-passage time on the interval $[0,t]$ involves the Korteveg-de Vries invariants, which are well known in the theory of Schrödinger operators. Finally, we apply these results to study the emptying time of a one-dimensional box, of size $L$, containing $N$ independent Brownian particles subjected to a constant drift. In the scaling limit where both $N\to \infty$ and $L\to \infty$, keeping the density $\rho =N/L$ fixed, we show that the limiting density of the emptying time is given by a Gumbel distribution. Our analysis provides a new example of the applications of extreme value statistics to out-of-equilibrium systems.

34 pages, 7 figures

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