Boundary conditions at a thin membrane for the normal diffusion equation which generate subdiffusion

Abstract

We consider a particle transport process in a one-dimensional system with a thin membrane, described by the normal diffusion equation. We consider two boundary conditions at the membrane that are linear combinations of integral operators, with time-dependent kernels, which act on the functions and their spatial derivatives defined on both membrane surfaces. We show how boundary conditions at the membrane change the temporal evolution of the first and second moments of particle position distribution (the Green's function) which is a solution to the normal diffusion equation. As these moments define the kind of diffusion, an appropriate choice of boundary conditions generates the moments characteristic for subdiffusion. The interpretation of the process is based on a particle random walk model in which the subdiffusion effect is caused by anomalously long stays of the particle in the membrane.