Experimental realization of diffusion with stochastic resetting

Ofir Tal-Friedman, Arnab Pal, Amandeep Sekhon, Shlomi Reuveni, Yael Roichman

Published 2020-03-06Version 1

Stochastic resetting is prevalent in natural and man-made systems giving rise to a long series of non-equilibrium phenomena. Diffusion with stochastic resetting serves as a paradigmatic model to study these phenomena, but the lack of a well-controlled platform by which this process can be studied experimentally has been a major impediment to research in the field. Here, we report the experimental realization of colloidal particle diffusion and resetting via holographic optical tweezers. This setup serves as a proof-of-concept which opens the door to experimental study of resetting phenomena. It also vividly illustrates why existing theoretical models must be improved and revised to better capture the real-world physics of stochastic resetting.