Analysis of fluctuations in the first return times of random walks on regular branched networks

The first return time (FRT) is the time it takes a random walker to first return to its original site, and the global first passage time (GFPT) is the first passage time for a random walker to move from a randomly selected site to a given site. We find that in finite networks, the variance of FRT, Var(FRT), can be expressed as Var(FRT) = 2⟨FRT⟩⟨GFPT⟩ − ⟨FRT⟩² − ⟨FRT⟩, where ⟨·⟩ is the mean of the random variable. Therefore a method of calculating the variance of FRT on general finite networks is presented. We then calculate Var(FRT) and analyze the fluctuation of FRT on regular branched networks (i.e., Cayley tree) by using Var(FRT) and its variant as the metric. We find that the results differ from those in such other networks as Sierpinski gaskets, Vicsek fractals, T-graphs, pseudofractal scale-free webs, (u, v) flowers, and fractal and non-fractal scale-free trees.