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Reconstructing a point source from diffusion fluxes to narrow windows in three dimensions

Accepted version
Peer-reviewed

Type

Article

Change log

Authors

Holcman, D 

Abstract

jats:pWe develop a computational approach to locate the source of a steady-state gradient of diffusing particles from the fluxes through narrow windows distributed either on the boundary of a three-dimensional half-space or on a sphere. This approach is based on solving the mixed boundary stationary diffusion equation with Neumann–Green’s function. The method of matched asymptotic expansions enables the computation of the probability fluxes. To explore the range of validity of this expansion, we develop a fast analytical-Brownian numerical scheme. This scheme accelerates the simulation time by avoiding the explicit computation of Brownian trajectories in the infinite domain. The results obtained from our derived analytical formulae and the fast numerical simulation scheme agree on a large range of parameters. Using the analytical representation of the particle fluxes, we show how to reconstruct the location of the point source. Furthermore, we investigate the uncertainty in the source reconstruction due to additive fluctuations present in the fluxes. We also study the influence of various window configurations: clustered versus uniform distributions on recovering the source position. Finally, we discuss possible applications for cell navigation in biology.</jats:p>

Description

Keywords

narrow escape problem, diffusion, Green's function, hybrid simulations, inverse problem, cellular navigation

Journal Title

PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY A-MATHEMATICAL PHYSICAL AND ENGINEERING SCIENCES

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

1364-5021
1471-2946

Volume Title

477

Publisher

The Royal Society

Rights

All rights reserved
Sponsorship
Wellcome Trust (092096/Z/10/Z)
Cancer Research UK (C6946/A24843)
Cancer Research Uk (None)