  Stochastic restart may drastically reduce the expected run time of a computer
algorithm, expedite the completion of a complex search process, or increase the
turnover rate of an enzymatic reaction. These diverse first-passage-time (FPT)
processes seem to have very little in common but it is actually quite the other
way around. Here we show that the relative standard deviation associated with
the FPT of an optimally restarted process, i.e., one that is restarted at a
(non-zero) rate which brings the mean FPT to a minimum, is always unity. We
interpret, further generalize, and discuss this finding and the implications
arising from it.
