Multi-diffusive nonlinear Fokker–Planck equation

Abstract

Nonlinear Fokker–Planck equations, characterized by more than one diffusion term, have appeared recently in literature. Here, it is shown that these equations may be derived either from approximations in a master equation, or from a Langevin-type approach. An H-theorem is proven, relating these Fokker–Planck equations to an entropy composed by a sum of contributions, each of them associated with a given diffusion term. Moreover, the stationary state of the Fokker–Planck equation is shown to coincide with the equilibrium state, obtained by extremization of the entropy, in the sense that both procedures yield precisely the same equation. Due to the nonlinear character of this equation, the equilibrium probability may be obtained, in most cases, only by means of numerical approaches. Some examples are worked out, where the equilibrium probability distribution is computed for nonlinear Fokker–Planck equations presenting two diffusion terms, corresponding to an entropy characterized by a sum of two contributions. It is shown that the resulting equilibrium distribution, in general, presents a form that differs from a sum of the equilibrium distributions that maximizes each entropic contribution separately, although in some cases one may construct such a linear combination as a good approximation for the equilibrium distribution.