A numerical method to solve the fractional diffusion equation, which could also be easily extended to many other fractional dynamics equations, is considered. These fractional equations have been proposed in order to describe anomalous transport characterized by non-Markovian kinetics and the breakdown of Fick's law. In this paper we combine the forward time centered space (FTCS) method, well known for the numerical integration of ordinary diffusion equations, with the Grünwald-Letnikov definition of the fractional derivative operator to obtain an explicit fractional FTCS scheme for solving the fractional diffusion equation. The resulting method is amenable to a stability analysisà la von Neumann. We show that the analytical stability bounds are in excellent agreement with numerical tests. Comparison between exact analytical solutions and numerical predictions are made.

We study the reaction front for the process A + B → C in which the reagents move subdiffusively. Our theoretical description is based on a fractional reaction-subdiffusion equation in which both the motion and the reaction terms are affected by the subdiffusive character of the process. We design numerical simulations to check our theoretical results, describing the simulations in some detail because the rules necessarily differ in important respects from those used in diffusive processes. Comparisons between theory and simulations are on the whole favorable, with the most difficult quantities to capture being those that involve very small numbers of particles. In particular, we analyze the total number of product particles, the width of the depletion zone, the production profile of product and its width, as well as the reactant concentrations at the center of the reaction zone, all as a function of time. We also analyze the shape of the product profile as a function of time, in particular its unusual behavior at the center of the reaction zone.

A class of finite difference methods for solving fractional diffusion equations is considered. These methods are an extension of the weighted average methods for ordinary (non-fractional) diffusion equations. Their accuracy is of order (Dx) 2 and Dt, except for the fractional version of the Crank-Nicholson method, where the accuracy with respect to the timestep is of order (Dt) 2 if a second-order approximation to the fractional time-derivative is used. Their stability is analyzed by means of a recently proposed procedure akin to the standard von Neumann stability analysis. A simple and accurate stability criterion valid for different discretization schemes of the fractional derivative, arbitrary weight factor, and arbitrary order of the fractional derivative, is found and checked numerically. Some examples are provided in which the new methods' numerical solutions are obtained and compared against exact solutions.

We study gradient formation of subdiffusive morphogens. The morphogens are produced at a source point at a constant rate. From there they move subdiffusively and are also subject to degradation at a rate that may depend on location and on time. Our analysis is based on a reaction-subdiffusion equation obtained from a continuous time random-walk model with a long-tailed waiting time distribution that also incorporates an evanescence process. Spatially uniform degradation at a constant rate leads to an exponentially decreasing stationary concentration profile hardly distinguishable from that obtained with normal diffusion. On the other hand, with location-dependent degradation we find a rich gamut of profiles, some qualitatively quite different from those occurring with normal diffusion. We conclude that long-time morphogen concentration profiles are very sensitive to the spatial dependence of the reactivity and may also serve as a sensitive measure of the occurrence of anomalous diffusion.

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