Fractional Substantial Derivative Research Articles

Error Estimates for Backward Fractional Feynman–Kac Equation with Non-Smooth Initial Data

In this paper, we are concerned with the numerical solution for the backward fractional Feynman-Kac equation with non-smooth initial data. Here we first provide the regularity estimate of the solution. And then we use the backward Euler and second-order backward difference convolution quadratures to approximate the Riemann-Liouville fractional substantial derivative and get the first- and second-order convergence in time. The finite element method is used to discretize the Laplace operator with the optimal convergence rates. Compared with the previous works for the backward fractional Feynman-Kac equation, the main advantage of the current discretization is that we don't need the assumption on the regularity of the solution in temporal and spatial directions. Moreover, the error estimates of the time semi-discrete schemes and the fully discrete schemes are also provided. Finally, we perform the numerical experiments to verify the effectiveness of the presented algorithms.

Compact finite difference schemes for the backward fractional Feynman–Kac equation with fractional substantial derivative**Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 11471262) and Henan University of Technology High-level Talents Fund, China (Grant No. 2018BS039).

The fractional Feynman–Kac equations describe the distributions of functionals of non-Brownian motion, or anomalous diffusion, including two types called the forward and backward fractional Feynman–Kac equations, where the non-local time–space coupled fractional substantial derivative is involved. This paper focuses on the more widely used backward version. Based on the newly proposed approximation operators for fractional substantial derivative, we establish compact finite difference schemes for the backward fractional Feynman–Kac equation. The proposed difference schemes have the q-th (q = 1,2,3,4) order accuracy in temporal direction and fourth order accuracy in spatial direction, respectively. The numerical stability and convergence in the maximum norm are proved for the first order time discretization scheme by the discrete energy method, where an inner product in complex space is introduced. Finally, extensive numerical experiments are carried out to verify the availability and superiority of the algorithms. Also, simulations of the backward fractional Feynman–Kac equation with Dirac delta function as the initial condition are performed to further confirm the effectiveness of the proposed methods.

Numerical Algorithms of the Two-dimensional Feynman–Kac Equation for Reaction and Diffusion Processes

This paper provides a finite difference discretization for the backward Feynman-Kac equation, governing the distribution of functionals of the path for a particle undergoing both reaction and diffusion [Hou and Deng, J. Phys. A: Math. Theor., {\bf51}, 155001 (2018)]. Numerically solving the equation with the time tempered fractional substantial derivative and tempered fractional Laplacian consists in discretizing these two non-local operators. Here, using convolution quadrature, we provide a first-order and second-order schemes for discretizing the time tempered fractional substantial derivative, which doesn't require the assumption of the regularity of the solution in time; we use the finite difference method to approximate the two-dimensional tempered fractional Laplacian, and the accuracy of the scheme depends on the regularity of the solution on $\bar{\Omega}$ rather than the whole space. Lastly, we verify the predicted convergence orders and the effectiveness of the presented schemes by numerical examples.

The Asymptotic Behaviour of Fractional Lattice Systems with Variable Delay

Abstract The existence and uniqueness of global solutions for a fractional functional differential equation is established. The asymptotic behaviour of a lattice system with a fractional substantial time derivative and variable time delays is investigated. The existence of a global attracting set is established. It is shown to be a singleton set under a certain condition on the Lipschitz constant.

High Order Algorithm for the Time-Tempered Fractional Feynman–Kac Equation

We provide and analyze the high order algorithms for the model describing the functional distributions of particles performing anomalous motion with power-law jump length and tempered power-law waiting time. The model is derived in [Wu, Deng, and Barkai, Phys. Rev. E., 84 (2016), 032151], being called the time-tempered fractional Feynman-Kac equation. The key step of designing the algorithms is to discretize the time tempered fractional substantial derivative, being defined as $${^S\!}D_t^{\gamma,\widetilde{\lambda}} G(x,p,t)\!=\!D_t^{\gamma,\widetilde{\lambda}} G(x,p,t)\!-\!\lambda^\gamma G(x,p,t) ~{\rm with}~\widetilde{\lambda}=\lambda+ pU(x),\, p=\rho+J\eta,\, J=\sqrt{-1},$$ where $$D_t^{\gamma,\widetilde{\lambda}} G(x,p,t) =\frac{1}{\Gamma(1-\gamma)} \left[\frac{\partial}{\partial t}+\widetilde{\lambda} \right] \int_{0}^t{\left(t-z\right)^{-\gamma}}e^{-\widetilde{\lambda}\cdot(t-z)}{G(x,p,z)}dz,$$ and $\lambda \ge 0$, $0<\gamma<1$, $\rho>0$, and $\eta$ is a real number. The designed schemes are unconditionally stable and have the global truncation error $\mathcal{O}(\tau^2+h^2)$, being theoretically proved and numerically verified in {\em complex} space. Moreover, some simulations for the distributions of the first passage time are performed, and the second order convergence is also obtained for solving the `physical' equation (without artificial source term).

Numerical schemes of the time tempered fractional Feynman–Kac equation

This paper focuses on providing the computation methods for the backward time tempered fractional Feynman–Kac equation, being one of the models recently proposed in Wu et al. (2016). The discretization for the tempered fractional substantial derivative is derived, and the corresponding finite difference and finite element schemes are designed with well established stability and convergence. The performed numerical experiments show the effectiveness of the presented schemes.

A second-order difference scheme for the time fractional substantial diffusion equation

In this work, a second-order approximation of the fractional substantial derivative is presented by considering a modified shifted substantial Grünwald formula and its asymptotic expansion. Moreover, the proposed approximation is applied to a fractional diffusion equation with fractional substantial derivative in time. With the use of the fourth-order compact scheme in space, we give a fully discrete Grünwald–Letnikov-formula-based compact difference scheme and prove its stability and convergence by the energy method under smooth assumptions. In addition, the problem with nonsmooth solution is also discussed, and an improved algorithm is proposed to deal with the singularity of the fractional substantial derivative. Numerical examples show the reliability and efficiency of the scheme.

High Order Algorithms for the Fractional Substantial Diffusion Equation with Truncated Lévy Flights

The equation with the time fractional substantial derivative and space fractional derivative describes the distribution of the functionals of the Lévy flights, and the equation is derived as the macroscopic limit of the continuous time random walk in unbounded domain and the Lévy flights have divergent second order moments. However, in more practical problems, the physical domain is bounded and the involved observables have finite moments. Then the modified equation can be derived by tempering the Lévy measure of the Lévy flights and the corresponding tempered space fractional derivative is introduced. This paper focuses on providing the high order algorithms for the modified equation, i.e., the equation with the time fractional substantial derivative and space tempered fractional derivative. More concretely, the contributions of this paper are as follows: (1) Detailed numerical stability analysis and error estimates of the schemes with first order accuracy in time and second order in space are given in complex} space, which is necessary since the inverse Fourier transform needs to be made for getting the distribution of the functionals after solving the equation. (2) We further propose the schemes with high order accuracy in both time and space, and the techniques of treating the issue of keeping the high order accuracy of the schemes for nonhomogeneous} boundary/initial conditions are introduced. (3) Multigrid methods are effectively used to solve the obtained algebraic equations which still have the Toeplitz structure. (4) We perform extensive numerical experiments, including verifying the high convergence orders and simulating the physical system which needs to numerically make the inverse Fourier transform to the numerical solutions of the equation.

Numerical Algorithms for the Forward and Backward Fractional Feynman–Kac Equations

The Feynman-Kac equations are a type of partial differential equations describing the distribution of functionals of diffusive motion. The probability density function (PDF) of Brownian functionals satisfies the Feynman-Kac formula, being a Schr\"{o}dinger equation in imaginary time. The functionals of no-Brownian motion, or anomalous diffusion, follow the fractional Feynman-Kac equation [J. Stat. Phys. 141, 1071-1092, 2010], where the fractional substantial derivative is involved. Based on recently developed discretized schemes for fractional substantial derivatives [arXiv:1310.3086], this paper focuses on providing algorithms for numerically solving the forward and backward fractional Feynman-Kac equations; since the fractional substantial derivative is non-local time-space coupled operator, new challenges are introduced comparing with the general fractional derivative. Two ways (finite difference and finite element) of discretizing the space derivative are considered. For the backward fractional Feynman-Kac equation, the numerical stability and convergence of the algorithms with first order accuracy are theoretically discussed; and the optimal estimates are obtained. For all the provided schemes, including the first order and high order ones, of both forward and backward Feynman-Kac equations, extensive numerical experiments are performed to show their effectiveness.

Anomalous Diffusion of Inertial, Weakly Damped Particles

The anomalous (i.e., non-Gaussian) dynamics of particles subject to a deterministic acceleration and a series of "random kicks" is studied. Based on an extension of the concept of continuous time random walks to position-velocity space, a new fractional equation of the Kramers-Fokker-Planck type is derived. The associated collision operator necessarily involves a fractional substantial derivative, representing important nonlocal couplings in time and space. For the force-free case, a closed solution is found and discussed.