Modern Stochastics: Theory and Applications

A general class of probability density functions is considered, containing as particular case the Barenblatt solutions arising, for instance, in the study of nonlinear heat equations. Alternative probabilistic representations of the Barenblatt-type solutions $u(x,t)$ are proposed. In the one-dimensional case, by means of this approach, $u(x,t)$ can be connected with the wave propagation.

In this paper we consider a telegraph equation with time-dependent coefficients, governing the persistent random walk of a particle moving on the line with a time-varying velocity $c(t)$ and changing direction at instants distributed according to a non-stationary Poisson distribution with rate $\lambda (t)$. We show that, under suitable assumptions, we are able to find the exact form of the probability distribution. We also consider the space-fractional counterpart of this model, finding the characteristic function of the related process. A conclusive discussion is devoted to the potential applications to run-and-tumble models.