We explore in this chapter questions of existence and uniqueness for solutions to stochastic differential equations and offer a study of their properties. This endeavor is really a study of diffusion processes. Loosely speaking, the term diffusion is attributed to a Markov process which has continuous sample paths and can be characterized in terms of its infinitesimal generator.

Stochastic Differential Equations

What is the fractional Laplacian? A comparative review with new results

Richard Mateosian reviews old and new books, including Weinberg on Writing--The Fieldstone Method, The Art of Computer Programming, From Java to Ruby--Things Every Manager Should Know, and Introduction to DITA--A User Guide to the Darwin Information Typing Architecture.

Old and New

We present three schemes for the numerical approximation of fractional diffusion, which build on different definitions of such a non-local process. The first method is a PDE approach that applies to the spectral definition and exploits the extension to one higher dimension. The second method is the integral formulation and deals with singular non-integrable kernels. The third method is a discretization of the Dunford–Taylor formula. We discuss pros and cons of each method, error estimates, and document their performance with a few numerical experiments.

Numerical methods for fractional diffusion

The fractional Laplacian in R^d has multiple equivalent characterizations. Moreover, in bounded domains, boundary conditions must be incorporated in these characterizations in mathematically distinct ways, and there is currently no consensus in the literature as to which definition of the fractional Laplacian in bounded domains is most appropriate for a given application. The Riesz (or integral) definition, for example, admits a nonlocal boundary condition, where the value of a function u(x) must be prescribed on the entire exterior of the domain in order to compute its fractional Laplacian. In contrast, the spectral definition requires only the standard local boundary condition. These differences, among others, lead us to ask the question: "What is the fractional Laplacian?" We compare several commonly used definitions of the fractional Laplacian (the Riesz, spectral, directional, and horizon-based nonlocal definitions), and we use a joint theoretical and computational approach to examining their different characteristics by studying solutions of related fractional Poisson equations formulated on bounded domains. 
In this work, we provide new numerical methods as well as a self-contained discussion of state-of-the-art methods for discretizing the fractional Laplacian, and we present new results on the differences in features, regularity, and boundary behaviors of solutions to equations posed with these different definitions. We present stochastic interpretations and demonstrate the equivalence between some recent formulations. Through our efforts, we aim to further engage the research community in open problems and assist practitioners in identifying the most appropriate definition and computational approach to use for their mathematical models in addressing anomalous transport in diverse applications.

What Is the Fractional Laplacian

This paper deals with the integral version of the Dirichlet homogeneous fractional Laplace equation. For this problem weighted and fractional Sobolev a priori estimates are provided in terms of the Holder regularity of the data. By relying on these results, optimal order of convergence for the standard linear finite element method is proved for quasi-uniform as well as graded meshes. Some numerical examples are given showing results in agreement with the theoretical predictions.

https://www.ci2ma.udec.cl/wonapde2016/minisymposia/abstract/borthagaray.pdf

A Fractional Laplace Equation: Regularity of Solutions and Finite Element Approximations

In Acosta etal. (2017), a complete n-dimensional finite element analysis of the homogeneous Dirichlet problem associated to a fractional Laplacian was presented. Here we provide a comprehensive and simple 2D MATLAB finite element code for such a problem. The code is accompanied with a basic discussion of the theory relevant in the context. The main program is written in about 80 lines and can be easily modified to deal with other kernels as well as with time dependent problems. The present work fills a gap by providing an input for a large number of mathematicians and scientists interested in numerical approximations of solutions of a large variety of problems involving nonlocal phenomena in two-dimensional space.

A short FE implementation for a 2d homogeneous Dirichlet problem of a fractional Laplacian

This paper presents regularity results and associated high order numerical methods for one-dimensional fractional-Laplacian boundary-value problems. On the basis of a factorization of solutions as a product of a certain edge-singular weight ω times a "regular" unknown, a characterization of the regularity of solutions is obtained in terms of the smoothness of the corresponding right-hand sides. In particular, for right-hand sides which are analytic in a Bernstein ellipse, analyticity in the same Bernstein ellipse is obtained for the ``regular'' unknown. Moreover, a sharp Sobolev regularity result is presented which completely characterizes the co-domain of the fractional-Laplacian operator in terms of certain weighted Sobolev spaces introduced in (Babuska and Guo, SIAM J. Numer. Anal. 2002). The present theoretical treatment relies on a full eigendecomposition for a certain weighted integral operator in terms of the Gegenbauer polynomial basis. The proposed Gegenbauer-based Nystrom numerical method for the fractional-Laplacian Dirichlet problem, further, is significantly more accurate and efficient than other algorithms considered previously. The sharp error estimates presented in this paper indicate that the proposed algorithm is spectrally accurate, with convergence rates that only depend on the smoothness of the right-hand side. In particular, convergence is exponentially fast (resp. faster than any power of the mesh-size) for analytic (resp. infinitely smooth) right-hand sides. The properties of the algorithm are illustrated with a variety of numerical results.

Regularity theory and high order numerical methods for the (1D)-fractional Laplacian

This paper deals with the \emph{integral} version of the Dirichlet homogeneous fractional Laplace equation. For this problem weighted and fractional Sobolev a priori estimates are provided in terms of the Holder regularity of the data. By relying on these results, optimal order of convergence for the standard linear finite element method is proved for quasi-uniform as well as graded meshes. Some numerical examples are given showing results in agreement with the theoretical predictions.

Juan Pablo Borthagaray

Papers

A Fractional Laplace Equation: Regularity of Solutions and Finite Element Approximations

Numerical methods for fractional diffusion

A short FE implementation for a 2d homogeneous Dirichlet problem of a fractional Laplacian

Regularity theory and high order numerical methods for the (1D)-fractional Laplacian

A fractional Laplace equation: regularity of solutions and Finite Element approximations