No Arabic abstract
We present a numerical method for the Monte Carlo simulation of uncoupled continuous-time random walks with a Levy alpha-stable distribution of jumps in space and a Mittag-Leffler distribution of waiting times, and apply it to the stochastic solution of the Cauchy problem for a partial differential equation with fractional derivatives both in space and in time. The one-parameter Mittag-Leffler function is the natural survival probability leading to time-fractional diffusion equations. Transformation methods for Mittag-Leffler random variables were found later than the well-known transformation method by Chambers, Mallows, and Stuck for Levy alpha-stable random variables and so far have not received as much attention; nor have they been used together with the latter in spite of their mathematical relationship due to the geometric stability of the Mittag-Leffler distribution. Combining the two methods, we obtain an accurate approximation of space- and time-fractional diffusion processes almost as easy and fast to compute as for standard diffusion processes.
The continuous-time random walk (CTRW) is a pure-jump stochastic process with several applications in physics, but also in insurance, finance and economics. A definition is given for a class of stochastic integrals driven by a CTRW, that includes the Ito and Stratonovich cases. An uncoupled CTRW with zero-mean jumps is a martingale. It is proved that, as a consequence of the martingale transform theorem, if the CTRW is a martingale, the Ito integral is a martingale too. It is shown how the definition of the stochastic integrals can be used to easily compute them by Monte Carlo simulation. The relations between a CTRW, its quadratic variation, its Stratonovich integral and its Ito integral are highlighted by numerical calculations when the jumps in space of the CTRW have a symmetric Levy alpha-stable distribution and its waiting times have a one-parameter Mittag-Leffler distribution. Remarkably these distributions have fat tails and an unbounded quadratic variation. In the diffusive limit of vanishing scale parameters, the probability density of this kind of CTRW satisfies the space-time fractional diffusion equation (FDE) or more in general the fractional Fokker-Planck equation, that generalize the standard diffusion equation solved by the probability density of the Wiener process, and thus provides a phenomenologic model of anomalous diffusion. We also provide an analytic expression for the quadratic variation of the stochastic process described by the FDE, and check it by Monte Carlo.
The stochastic solution with Gaussian stationary increments is establihsed for the symmetric space-time fractional diffusion equation when $0 < beta < alpha le 2$, where $0 < beta le 1$ and $0 < alpha le 2$ are the fractional derivation orders in time and space, respectively. This solution is provided by imposing the identity between two probability density functions resulting (i) from a new integral representation formula of the fundamental solution of the symmetric space-time fractional diffusion equation and (ii) from the product of two independent random variables. This is an alternative method with respect to previous approaches such as the scaling limit of the continuos time random walk, the parametric subordination and the subordinated Langevin equation. A new integral representation formula for the fundamental solution of the space-time fractional diffusion equation is firstly derived. It is then shown that, in the symmetric case, a stochastic solution can be obtained by a Gaussian process with stationary increments and with a random wideness scale variable distributed according to an arrangement of two extremal Levy stable densities. This stochastic solution is self-similar with stationary increments and uniquely defined in a statistical sense by the mean and the covariance structure. Numerical simulations are carried out by choosing as Gaussian process the fractional Brownian motion. Sample paths and probability densities functions are shown to be in agreement with the fundamental solution of the symmetric space-time fractional diffusion equation.
We introduce a heterogeneous continuous time random walk (HCTRW) model as a versatile analytical formalism for studying and modeling diffusion processes in heterogeneous structures, such as porous or disordered media, multiscale or crowded environments, weighted graphs or networks. We derive the exact form of the propagator and investigate the effects of spatio-temporal heterogeneities onto the diffusive dynamics via the spectral properties of the generalized transition matrix. In particular, we show how the distribution of first passage times changes due to local and global heterogeneities of the medium. The HCTRW formalism offers a unified mathematical language to address various diffusion-reaction problems, with numerous applications in material sciences, physics, chemistry, biology, and social sciences.
Intermittent stochastic processes appear in a wide field, such as chemistry, biology, ecology, and computer science. This paper builds up the theory of intermittent continuous time random walk (CTRW) and L{e}vy walk, in which the particles are stochastically reset to a given position with a resetting rate $r$. The mean squared displacements of the CTRW and L{e}vy walks with stochastic resetting are calculated, uncovering that the stochastic resetting always makes the CTRW process localized and L{e}vy walk diffuse slower. The asymptotic behaviors of the probability density function of Levy walk with stochastic resetting are carefully analyzed under different scales of $x$, and a striking influence of stochastic resetting is observed.
A physical-mathematical approach to anomalous diffusion may be based on generalized diffusion equations (containing derivatives of fractional order in space or/and time) and related random walk models. The fundamental solution (for the {Cauchy} problem) of the fractional diffusion equations can be interpreted as a probability density evolving in time of a peculiar self-similar stochastic process that we view as a generalized diffusion process. By adopting appropriate finite-difference schemes of solution, we generate models of random walk discrete in space and time suitable for simulating random variables whose spatial probability density evolves in time according to a given fractional diffusion equation.