Search by Return: Stochastic Resetting in Fluctuating Harmonic Potentials

Abstract

We study a class of stochastic resetting (SR) processes in which a diffusing particle alternates between free motion and confinement by an externally controlled potential. When the particle is recaptured, it undergoes a return trajectory that drives it toward a designated reset point. In standard SR, such returns are treated as instantaneous, but in realistic setups they have finite duration and introduce imprecision in the starting points of subsequent search attempts. We analyze a fluctuating harmonic potential in which return trajectories are forcibly terminated the moment the particle reaches the origin, ensuring that all outward (diffusive) trajectories begin from the same point. This is implemented through instantaneous positional information: a feedback signal that shortens the return phase without incurring additional mechanical energetic cost. We examine several search protocols built on this controlled return mechanism and determine their mean first-passage times (MFPTs). Of particular interest is a protocol in which outward diffusion is eliminated entirely and the return motion itself becomes the search mechanism. This "search by return" perspective reverses the conventional logic of SR and yields a closed-form MFPT that highlights the efficiency of using return dynamics as the primary search strategy.