• Accepted Paper

Resetting optimized competitive first-passage outcomes in non-Markovian systems

Suvam Pal, Rahul Das, and Arnab Pal

APS Open Sci. - Accepted 15 September, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/tk5f-y65r

Abstract

We investigate the role of stochastic resetting in non-Markovian systems, where memory effects arise due to slow relaxation, rugged energy landscapes, disordered environments, and molecular crowding. Using the celebrated continuous-time random walk (CTRW) framework, we analyze first-passage processes with multiple competing outcomes and examine how resetting can selectively enhance desired outcomes. We characterize the efficiency of resetting through conditional mean first-passage times (MFPTs) and demonstrate that its impact is highly sensitive to the underlying waiting-time statistics. Furthermore, we derive an inequality that quantifies how resetting controls fluctuations in conditional first-passage times (FPTs), revealing regimes where variability is significantly suppressed. Our results provide a systematic understanding of how long-term memory influences competitive first-passage outcomes and establish resetting as a powerful control mechanism beyond the conventional Markovian setting.

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