Fokas method for a multi-domain linear reaction-diffusion equation with discontinuous diffusivity

Abstract

Motivated by proliferation-diffusion mathematical models for studying highly diffusive brain tumors, that also take into account the heterogeneity of the brain tissue, in the present work we consider a multi-domain linear reaction-diffusion equation with a discontinuous diffusion coefficient. For the solution of the problem at hand we implement Fokas transform method by directly following, and extending in this way, our recent work for a white-gray-white matter brain model pertaining to high grade gliomas. Fokas's novel approach for the solution of linear PDE problems, yields novel integral representations of the solution in the complex plane that, for appropriately chosen integration contours, decay exponentially fast and converge uniformly at the boundaries. Combining these method-inherent advantages with simple numerical quadrature rules, we produce an efficient method, with fast decaying error properties, for the solution of the discontinuous reaction-diffusion problem. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.