Optimal search strategies of run-and-tumble walks

Abstract

The run-and-tumble walk, consisting of randomly reoriented ballistic excursions, models phenomena ranging from gas kinetics to bacteria motility. We evaluate the mean time required for this walk to find a fixed target within a two- or three-dimensional spherical confinement. We find that the mean search time admits a minimum as a function of the mean run duration for various types of boundary conditions and run duration distributions (exponential, power-law, deterministic). Our result stands in sharp contrast to the pure ballistic motion, which is predicted to be the optimal search strategy in the case of Poisson-distributed targets.