  Constraints can affect dramatically the behavior of diffusion processes.
Recently, we analyzed a natural and a technological system and reported that
they perform diffusion-like discrete steps displaying a peculiar constraint,
whereby the increments of the diffusing variable are subject to
configuration-dependent bounds. This work explores theoretically some of the
revealing landmarks of such phenomenology, termed "soft bound". At long times,
the system reaches a steady state irreversibly (i.e., violating detailed
balance), characterized by a skewed "shoulder" in the density distribution, and
by a net local probability flux, which has entropic origin. The largest point
in the support of the distribution follows a saturating dynamics, expressed by
the Gompertz law, in line with empirical observations. Finally, we propose a
generic allometric scaling for the origin of soft bounds. These findings shed
light on the impact on a system of such "scaling" constraint and on its
possible generating mechanisms.
