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In this paper, we consider a stochastic process that may experience random reset events which relocate the system to its starting position. We focus our attention on a one-dimensional, monotonic continuous-time random walk with a constant drift: the process moves in a fixed direction between the reset events, either by the effect of the random jumps, or by the action of a deterministic bias. However, the orientation of its motion is randomly determined after each restart. As a result of these alternating dynamics, interesting properties do emerge. General formulas for the propagator as well as for two extreme statistics, the survival probability and the mean first-passage time, are also derived. The rigor of these analytical results is verified by numerical estimations, for particular but illuminating examples.

In this article we demonstrate the very inspiring role of the continuous-time random walk (CTRW) formalism, the numerous modifications permitted by its flexibility, its various applications, and the promising perspectives in the various fields of knowledge. A short review of significant achievements and possibilities is given. However, this review is still far from completeness. We focused on a pivotal role of CTRWs mainly in anomalous stochastic processes discovered in physics and beyond. This article plays the role of an extended announcement of the Eur. Phys. J. B Special Issue [ http://epjb.epj.org/open-calls-for-papers/123-epj-b/1090-ctrw-50-years-on ] containing articles which show incredible possibilities of the CTRWs.

We review some extensions of the continuous time random walk first introduced by Elliott Montroll and George Weiss more than 50 years ago [E.W. Montroll, G.H. Weiss, J. Math. Phys. 6 , 167 (1965)], extensions that embrace multistate walks and, in particular, the persistent random walk. We generalize these extensions to include fractional random walks and derive the associated master equation, namely, the fractional telegrapher’s equation. We dedicate this review to our joint work with George H. Weiss (1930–2017). It saddens us greatly to report the recent death of George Weiss, a scientific giant and at the same time a lovely and humble man.

We address the generic problem of random search for a point-like target on a line. Using the measures of search reliability and efficiency to quantify the random search quality, we compare Brownian search with Lévy search based on long-tailed jump length distributions. We then compare these results with a search process combined of two different long-tailed jump length distributions. Moreover, we study the case of multiple targets located by a Lévy searcher.

The Continuous Time Random Walk (CTRW) was introduced by Montroll and Weiss in 1965 in a purely mathematical paper. Its antecedents and later applications beginning in 1973 are discussed, especially for the case of fractal time where the mean waiting time between jumps is infinite.

We study the causes of anomalous dispersion in Darcy-scale porous media characterized by spatially heterogeneous hydraulic properties. Spatial variability in hydraulic conductivity leads to spatial variability in the flow properties through Darcy’s law and thus impacts on solute and particle transport. We consider purely advective transport in heterogeneity scenarios characterized by broad distributions of heterogeneity length scales and point values. Particle transport is characterized in terms of the stochastic properties of equidistantly sampled Lagrangian velocities, which are determined by the flow and conductivity statistics. The persistence length scales of flow and transport velocities are imprinted in the spatial disorder and reflect the distribution of heterogeneity length scales. Particle transitions over the velocity length scales are kinematically coupled with the transition time through velocity. We show that the average particle motion follows a coupled continuous time random walk (CTRW), which is fully parameterized by the distribution of flow velocities and the medium geometry in terms of the heterogeneity length scales. The coupled CTRW provides a systematic framework for the investigation of the origins of anomalous dispersion in terms of heterogeneity correlation and the distribution of conductivity point values. We derive analytical expressions for the asymptotic scaling of the moments of the spatial particle distribution and first arrival time distribution (FATD), and perform numerical particle tracking simulations of the coupled CTRW to capture the full average transport behavior. Broad distributions of heterogeneity point values and lengths scales may lead to very similar dispersion behaviors in terms of the spatial variance. Their mechanisms, however are very different, which manifests in the distributions of particle positions and arrival times, which plays a central role for the prediction of the fate of dissolved substances in heterogeneous natural and engineered porous materials.

In ageing systems physical observables explicitly depend on the time span elapsing between the original initiation of the system and the actual start of the recording of the particle motion. We here study the signatures of ageing in the framework of ultraslow continuous time random walk processes with super-heavy tailed waiting time densities. We derive the density for the forward or recurrent waiting time of the motion as function of the ageing time, generalise the Montroll–Weiss equation for this process, and analyse the ageing behaviour of the ensemble and time averaged mean squared displacements.

We study the power spectrum which is estimated from a nonstationary signal. In particular we examine the case when the signal is observed in a measurement time window [ t w , t w + t m ], namely the observation started after a waiting time t w , and t m is the measurement duration. We introduce a generalized aging Wiener–Khinchin theorem which relates between the spectrum and the time- and ensemble-averaged correlation functions for arbitrary t m and t w . Furthermore we provide a general relation between the non-analytical behavior of the scale-invariant correlation function and the aging 1∕ f β noise. We illustrate our general results with two-state renewal models with sojourn times’ distributions having a broad tail.

Random walks in composite continuous time are introduced. Composite time flow is the product of translational time flow and fractional time flow [see Chem. Phys. 84 , 399 (2002)]. The continuum limit of composite continuous time random walks gives a diffusion equation where the infinitesimal generator of time flow is the sum of a first order and a fractional time derivative. The latter is specified as a generalized Riemann-Liouville derivative. Generalized and binomial Mittag-Leffler functions are found as the exact results for waiting time density and mean square displacement.

An extended version of the Continuous-Time Random Walk (CTRW) model with memory is herein developed. This memory involves the dependence between arbitrary number of successive jumps of the process while waiting times between jumps are considered as i.i.d. random variables. This dependence was established analyzing empirical histograms for the stochastic process of a single share price on a market within the high frequency time scale. Then, it was justified theoretically by considering bid-ask bounce mechanism containing some delay characteristic for any double-auction market. Our model appeared exactly analytically solvable. Therefore, it enables a direct comparison of its predictions with their empirical counterparts, for instance, with empirical velocity autocorrelation function. Thus, the present research significantly extends capabilities of the CTRW formalism.