Diffusion in an age-structured randomly switching environment
File(s)agehybridmomentsR.pdf (601.91 KB)
Accepted version
Author(s)
Bressloff, Paul C
Lawley, Sean D
Murphy, Patrick
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Age-structured processes are well-established in population biology, where birth and death rates often depend on the age of the underlying populations. Recently, however, different examples of age-structured processes have been considered in the context of cell motility or certain types of stochastically gated ion channels, where the state of the system is determined by a switching process with age-dependent transition rates. In this paper we consider the particular problem of diffusion on a finite interval, with randomly switching boundary conditions due to the presence of an age-structured stochastic gate at one end of the interval. When the gate is closed the particles are reflected, whereas when it is open the domain is in contact with a particle bath. We use a moments method to derive a partial differential equation for the expectations of the stochastic concentration, conditioned on the state of the gate. We then use transform methods to eliminate the residence time of the age-structured switching, resulting in non-Markovian equations for the expectations, and determine the effective steady-state concentration gradient. Our analytical results are shown to match those obtained using Monte Carlo simulations.
Date Issued
2018-08-03
Date Acceptance
2018-06-05
Citation
Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical, 2018, 51 (31)
ISSN
1751-8113
Publisher
IOP Publishing
Journal / Book Title
Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical
Volume
51
Issue
31
Copyright Statement
Copyright © 2018 IOP Publishing Ltd. This is an author-created, un-copyedited version of an article published in Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical. IOP Publishing Ltd is not responsible for any errors or omissions in this version of the manuscript or any version derived from it. The Version of Record is available online at 10.1088/1751-8121/aaca7c
Identifier
http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1751-8121/aaca7c
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
315001
Date Publish Online
2018-06-19