One-dimensional random walks with self-blocking immigration

Abstract

We consider a system of independent one-dimensional random walkers where new particles are added at the origin at fixed rate whenever there is no older particle present at the origin. A Poisson ansatz leads to a semi-linear lattice heat equation and predicts that starting from the empty configuration the total number of particles grows as $c\sqrt{t}\log t$. We confirm this prediction and also describe the asymptotic macroscopic profile of the particle configuration.