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Lévy walks with permanent immobilization characterized by non-normalized flight time distribution
Phys. Rev. E 114, 054102 – Published 3 November, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/wy23-18dr
Abstract
Permanent particle immobilization widely emerges across complex transport systems, ranging from intracellular transport to active matter in disordered media, and constitutes a hallmark feature of such systems. Starting from the standard Lévy walk with power-law distributed flight time , we construct the immobilized Lévy walk framework by introducing a non-normalized power-law distribution to characterize flight durations for both regimes and . In this model, particles may undergo permanent immobilization at renewal events where their flight direction is updated. By separating the particles into active and immobilized states, we derive a general propagator expression that strictly enforces probability conservation. We demonstrate that the immobilized Lévy walks obey the universal scaling , which exhibits superdiffusion for and subdiffusion for . The system relaxes toward a power-law stationary distribution , whose form matches the single-step flight length distribution. We further investigate the time-dependent propagator near the ballistic front via the infinite density formalism, an approach capable of reproducing both the asymptotic mean-squared displacement and stationary distribution. This infinite density captures key long-time statistical signatures of particle dynamics and offers fundamental insights into the dynamical impacts induced by the permanent immobilization mechanism.
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